Armagh Cricket Club heard some sad news on Friday when they learnt of the death of former overseas professional Ashok Mankad in Mumbai. Mankad was Armagh’s third professional player and was at the Mall for only one season back in 1984 when he wowed locals with his skills. The son of legendary Indian all-rounder Vinoo Mankad, Ashok came into the game early, making his first class debut at the tender age of 16 but already a precocious talent. Ashok played 22 test matches for India, spread over ten years but hindered by being moved up and down the batting order with regularity. However, anytime he was left out of the side his sheer volume of runs in first class cricket made him impossible to ignore, averaging a monumental 50.9 over the course of his career and an incredible 76 in the Ranji Trophy, India’s premier first class competition. He played his final test in Australia in 1978, but perhaps was best remembered for famously being dismissed against England in 1974 when his cap fell onto the stumps. He never managed to score a test-match century, his best being 97 against the Australians. Strangely, he only played in one One-Day-International, top scoring with 44 against England at The Oval.

He continued to score plenty of runs domestically until his retirement from First class cricket in 1983, but the very next year he was brought to an Armagh side under the captaincy of Reg Stinson. Mankad had a superb year for Armagh in Section 2, scoring 838 runs in 18 games at an average of just over 56. His bowling, while not really used often at first class and international level, was good enough to take 35 wickets at an average of 17 in his year as an Armagh player. 

After his retirement from the game, Ashok Mankad moved into coaching, looking after the first-class teams of Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh, Railways and Baroda. His greatest achievement was when he coached Mumbai to Ranji Trophy victory in 1999-2000, emulating his two successes in the competition as a player in 1975-76 and 1976-77. Mankad was often tipped as a potential coach of India and was thought by many to be a shrewd and intelligent thinker about the game, but somehow the top job continually managed to elude him.

Mankad died in his sleep on August 1st 2008, and is survived by his wife Nirupama, and two sons, Mihir and Harsh. He was 61.