Brijesh Patel

Brijesh Patel  pronunciation  (born November 24, 1952) grew up in Bangalore is an Indian cricketer who played for the Indian national cricket team as a right-handed batsman from 1974 until 1979.

Patel played in 21 test matches from 1974 to 1977, and sustained a batting average of 29.45. He was also a bowler, but was never asked to deliver his right-arm off breaks for his national team. His highest test score was 115 not out. He was regarded as an excellent fielder normally covering areas around cover and point.

While his international cricketing career was not particularly productive, he made 37 hundreds and over 11000 runs in first class cricket. His international career came to a premature end because of his suspect technique against genuine pace. At the time of his retirement, he held the Ranji Trophy records (since bettered) for most runs and hundreds. His talent first became evident as a student in Bishop Cotton Boys School, Bangalore, and he represented his country in a junior team that traveled to Australia. Throughout his career, he represented Karnataka state and captained the team to many victories. He and fellow international Gundappa Vishwanath formed a formidable batting pair.

After his playing days he became cricket administrator. A Jagmohan Dalmiya (past President of the Indian Cricket Board (BCCI)) supporter, Patel was appointed the Director of the National Cricket Academy in India until he was replaced in 2005 by another ex-Test cricketer, Shivlal Yadav, the current director of the NCA.

Brijesh Patel has also been the Hon. Secretary of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) since 1999 and controls cricket in Karnataka. Some years ago he was also the Chairman of the National Selection Committee for the Indian national team and resigned after suffering a heart ailment.

Brijesh Patel runs a private cricket coaching academy in Bangalore called B.P.C.A. (Brijesh Patel Cricket Academy), attended by more than 300 boys.

References

• Players and Officials - Brijesh Patel – biography from cricinfo.com
• Brijesh Patel (India) – statistics from cricmania.com
• "A positive step, says Brijesh Patel", The Hindu, 2005-10-15

India squads
India squad – 1975 Cricket World Cup 1 Venkataraghavan (c) 2 Solkar 3 Gaekwad 4 Ghavri 5 Patel 6 Viswanath 7 Gavaskar 8 Engineer (wk) 9 Abid Ali 10 Amarnath 11 Madan Lal 12 Bedi India squad – 1979 Cricket World Cup 1 Venkataraghavan (c) 2 Gavaskar 3 Amarnath 4 Viswanath 5 Vengsarkar 6 Gaekwad 7 Ghavri 8 Kapil 9 Brijesh 10 Surinder (wk) 11 Bedi 12 Reddy 13 Yashpal