Wisden Obituary
A stylish opener and a brilliant cover fieldsman, Ramnath Dhondu Parkar died in Mumbai on Aug 11. He was 52, and had been in a coma since New Year's Eve, 1995, when he was knocked off his scooter by a bus. Parkar played two Tests against England in 1972–73. He scored 80 runs, with a highest score of 35 on debut at New Delhi.

He played for Bombay for ten years until 1980–81, and scored 2795 runs in the Ranji Trophy at an average of 38.29. His highest score was 197 at Hyderabad in 1974–75, but he had clinched Test selection two years earlier with a magnificent 195 for champions Bombay against a strong Rest of India attack ( Madan Lal, Bedi, Prasanna, Venkat) in the Irani Trophy match at Pune. Ajit Wadekar, who captained him for Bombay and India, said: `He was a very gusty and attacking batsman, and a magnificent fielder. He made an impact as a brilliant cover point, and also by executing Rohan Kanhai-like sweeps, falling on the ground.' Parkar the batsman was also a compulsive hooker, which probably disadvantaged him at the highest level.

Tony Lewis, England's captain in that 1972–73 series, made his Test debut in the same game as Parkar. He remembers him as: `Short, slightly built and extremely quick over the ground. He was left out because he had failed in the first two Test matches – but so had Sunil Gavaskar!' Steven Lynch

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