Mumbai’s classy Guru Gupte no more

Guru Gupte

The Mumbai cricketing fraternity was reminded of the kind of competition there was for places as they remembered former Ranji Trophy batsman Guru Gupte, who passed away at the age of 66 on Monday.

Classy Gupte represented the Railways in 1974-75 and 1975-76 before making his Mumbai debut in the 1980-81 season. He scored 170 in Mumbai's second innings against Tamil Nadu in that season's semi-finals, scored 18 in Mumbai's only innings during their victory over Delhi in the final and never wore a Ranji Trophy cap again. Gupte, who batted at No.3 in his last three games for Mumbai, was a member of the Indian schoolboys team which toured England in 1973, managed by batting stalwart Vijay Manjrekar. Gupte got his chance for Mumbai in 1980-81 when the star players were in Australia with the Indian team. The stars were in full presence in 1981-82 when Gupte couldn't be accommodated. Gupte was a schoolmate of Dilip Vengsarkar.

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