Former Test batsman Vijay Mehra dies

NEW DELHI: Former India Test batsman Vijay Mehra died here after a cardiac arrest on Friday morning.

He was 68 and is survived by wife, a son and a daughter.

Mehra's death was sudden and he collapsed while reading newspaper at 8.15 am, a relative of his said.

"He was a very dear friend and I will miss him. As a player he was limited in talent but excelled within those limitations," former India captain Bishan Singh Bedi said.

Mehra was the youngest Indian Test cricketer when he made his debut at the age of 17 in 1955 against New Zealand at Mumbai.

He played in only eight Tests but would be remembered for his brave 62 he scored against England at Kolkata in 1962.

Mehra also played another key innings on the West Indies tour that followed, when he shared a century stand with Salim Durrani in the fourth Test at Port of Spain.

 He had a successful first-class cricket career, scoring 5614 runs with 13 hundreds in 109 matches.

After his playing days, he served as a national selector and later became a television and radio commentator.

Mehra was very recently on air, giving his expert comments for AIR during India's tour of the West Indies.

And even last afternoon, he was at a Doordarshan studio for a shoot.

His son Ajay Mehra also played first-class cricket for Delhi and Rajasthan, and his wife Kusum Mehra was a professor at Lady Sriram College here.