| Dinkar Balwant Deodhar | |
| Birth Date: | 1892 1, df=yes |
| Birth Place: | Poona, Bombay presidency, British India (Now Pune, Maharashtra, India) |
| Death Place: | Pune, India |
| Batting: | Right-handed |
| Bowling: | Legbreak |
| Columns: | 1 |
| Column1: | First-class |
| Matches1: | 81 |
| Runs1: | 4522 |
| Bat Avg1: | 39.32 |
| 100S/50S1: | 9/27 |
| Top Score1: | 246 |
| Deliveries1: | 970 |
| Wickets1: | 11 |
| Bowl Avg1: | 53.27 |
| Fivefor1: | 0 |
| Tenfor1: | 0 |
| Best Bowling1: | 2/24 |
| Catches/Stumpings1: | 70/0 |
| Source: | https://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Players/2/2298/2298.html CricketArchive |
| Date: | 7 July 2019 |
Dinkar Balwant Deodhar (14 January 1892 – 24 August 1993) was an Indian cricketer. He played first-class cricket from 1911 to 1948.
Deodhar was born in Poona (now Pune), British India. He was a professor of Sanskrit at Pune College.[1]
Popularly known as the Grand Old Man of Indian Cricket, Deodhar was an aggressive right-hand batsman and a leg-break bowler. He captained Maharashtra in Ranji Trophy matches from 1939 to 1941. In his first-class career, he played 81 matches, scoring 4,522 runs at an average of 39.32 with a highest score of 246.[2]
Deodhar was vice-president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, the President of the Maharashtra Cricket Association, and also a national team selector. The Deodhar Trophy, a limited overs inter-zonal cricket tournament played in India since 1973, is named after him. In 1996, India Post issued a commemorative stamp in his honour. A statue of Deodhar was unveiled at Pune's Sahara cricket stadium in 2012.
Like Bill Ashdown, Deodhar is one of the few people known to have played first-class cricket both before the First World War and after the Second World War, having played in the Bombay Triangular in 1911 and the Ranji Trophy in 1946.[3] In a Ranji Trophy game against Nawanagar in 1944, he scored centuries in both innings, helping his team win. He was aged 53 at the time.[4]
He was awarded the Padma Shri award in 1965 and the Padma Bhushan in 1991 by the Indian Government.[5] He was the first Indian first-class cricketer known to have lived to 100. Vasant Raiji became the second in 2020. Raiji died a few months after becoming a centenarian.[6]
India's former National Badminton Champions Tara Deodhar, Sunder Deodhar, and Suman Deodhar are his daughters.