Cricket writer Bala passes away

Bala had a distinctive presence in the press box,always full of anecdotes about Indian cricket,cricketers and covering cricket in the pre-television and pre-Internet era. With time,stories about his long arguments with some of Indias top cricketers and his quick observations about the technical adjustments they needed to make,became legitimate cricket anecdotes in their own right.

The author of several books on cricket,Balas last published work was The Covers Are Off: A Socio-Historical Study of Indian Cricket: 1932-2003. His latest book,Days Well Spent was to be launched in Bangalore on Saturday,October 11. The book will now be released at a later date. Bala had completed his higher education in London,and was known to be a voracious reader not just on cricket,but on various other subjects as well. His school friends say that Bala was a decent club-level cricketer who used to bat in the middle-order and bowl off-spin.

The Sports Journalists Federation of India (SJFI) condoled Balas death,describing him as one of the doyens of Indian sports writing. Rajan Balas dedication and commitment to the profession was not only exemplary but path-breaking,especially in cricket reporting, the SJFI said in a statement. He brought joy and fulfilment to lakhs of readers with his lucid and simple style of writing at a time when television coverage was practically non-existent, it added.