Veteran Indian statistician Anandji Dossa dies at the age of 98

Legendary cricket statistician Anandji Dossa is no more (image courtesy: Mid Day)

Legendary Indian cricket historian and statistician Anandji Dossa died at the age of 98 in New York on Monday. He had moved to the United States of America (USA) along with his wife last year in order to live with his daughters.

Dossa was one of the first cricket statisticians in the country and did live scoring for all major matches in India for the All India Radio for three decades.

In his early days, Dossa was a very fine wicket-keeper batsman and turned out regularly for PJ Hindu Gymkhana in club cricket but was never able to establish himself in the Mumbai Ranji Trophy side due to the presence of Madhav Mantri, who was a stalwart of Mumbai cricket back in those days.

Dossa was a true cricket connoisseur and had collected a number of outstanding cricket books over the years. Some of these include Parsi Cricket by ME Pavri, 1901, Stray Thoughts on Indian Cricket by JM Framjee Patel from 1905 and the first ever encyclopaedia on Indian cricket by WD Begg, published in 1929. He had also written many books himself – Duleep - the Man and his Game, Cricket Ties: India-Pakistan and Art of Scoring in Gujarati just to name a few.

In an interview he had given to Cricket Country on his 97th birthday, he talked about his fascination for cricket stats which had started in 1932, at the tender age of 16, when India had toured England for the first time. Ever since then, Dossa made it a habit to collect the most minor of details of a cricket match and would note it down without fail in his scrapbook.

His scrapbooks, which had newspaper cuttings of each and every match played by India since their first game in 1932, achieved legendary status. Apart from cuttings, he also noted down important details in his scrapbook.

He donated a large part of his invaluable collection to the Cricket Club of India, which are preserved in the Anandji Dossa Library at CCI.

Interestingly, it was legendary Indian batsman Vijay Merchant who introduced Dossa to the commentary box as a helpline for commentators after coming to know of the latter’s exceptional ability of memorising numbers related to cricket.

The story goes that when Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi was once at the batting crease, Merchant began pondering whether Pataudi had ever been run out. In a matter of seconds, Dossa came up with the reply: “Once — in the Moin-ud-Dowlah.” And mind you, this was back in the day where no online databses were available.

Dossa will be hugely missed

Dossa’s incredible contribution to the game of cricket, thankfully, hasn’t gone unnoticed by the cricketing public. On the occasion of his 98th birthday, Lawrence Booth, the edior of Wisden, wrote: “I’m afraid I’ve never had the pleasure of interacting with Mr Dossa, but I would like to wish him a very happy birthday on behalf of everyone at Wisden and hope he scores hundred and many more.”

He will undoubtedly remain a role model for young and upcoming cricket statisticians, with the work that he has done in the sport over his lifetime being unmatched till date not just in India but anywhere in the world.

South African statistician Andrew Samson, who won the Statistician of the Year Award from The Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians, had recently said, “I have not had any direct contact with Anandji Dossa, personally. I am, however, well aware of his work. His contribution to cricket statistics, especially in India is immense and I wish him a very happy birthday and look forward to him reaching a century in a couple of years.”