Desh Prem Azad
Dronacharia Desh Prem Azad who died on 16th August in Chandigarh was my senior cricketer at Mahindra College, Patiala in the early nineteen sixties. Mahindra College was known for its sports activities.Our college won most of the intercollegiate tournaments in Punjab at that time.There were Athletes, Hockey players and Cricketers who participated on the national level. Our cricket team was one of the finest teams in Punjab and many of the Ranji Trophy players of the East Punjab team were from our college. Desh Prem Aazad was one of illustrious cricketer at that time and was a protege of Lala Amarnath who was the Chairman Of the Indian cricket Board . Desh Prem Azad was one of the bright prospects for playing in the Indian Cricket team at that time. But he finally did not make it to the Indian team. It was rumored at that time that due to some differences with Lala Amarnath he lost his chance of getting to the Indian cricket team.
Desh Prem Azad was a fast medium pace bowler and could swing the ball both ways with ease. In fact he was an all rounder. He was a very good batsman and a very agile fielder. Although he had already passed out of the college by the time I got in to the college and the university team he was always present in the nets to play with us along with our cricket coach Baba Ramkrishan. His presence in the nets was a great inspiration for us and we learned a lot from not only his cricketing abilities but also as Kapil Dev has said his understanding of the game. He was one of the Ranji Trophy players from our college along with M.P.Pandov, Harcharan Singh Channi and Ranbir Singh Chauhan and another Dronacharya Gurcharan Singh who were great cricketers in their own right. Apart from the finer points of cricket what we learnt most from Desh Prem Azad was his sense discipline, dedication and love for the game of cricket. He will be missed by all those who were associated with him in the great game of cricket.
Vishnu Mathur.
August 18, 2013.
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