It happened earlier in the week but it’s still so hard to believe and come to terms with that Rahul ‘Jigga’ Mankad is no more. Yes, he had an episode in early March, but was back home at his daughter’s place in Kent and recovering and was expecting to return by mid-April to Dubai where he lived. But it was not to be. The great Vinoo also passed away when he was in his early 60s and so did his other two sons,  Ashok with whom I had the good fortune of spending over a decade playing college, first-class and Test cricket, was just over 60 when he left the world and Atul, who was in class with me in college, was also in his 60s when he passed away.

Rahul was also in his 60s, the youngest of the three brothers. He loved cricket, could talk endlessly about it and wanted to be involved with it in some way or the other. With his administrative experience with the Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, where he lived for a long time, he would have made a great sports administrator, but he just wasn’t given the opportunity.