The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Meher Baba passes away

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Thursday, Jan 17, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Meher Baba passes away

V. V. Subrahmanyam

HYDERABAD: Dantala Venkata Meher Baba, dubbed as Andhra’s Clive Lloyd, more for his towering personality and a tinge of resemblance to the West Indian great in terms of big-hitting, is no more.

This indefatigable cricketer breathed his last in the City on Wednesday morning.

Not even the best of efforts from the doctors and gestures by some like N. Shivlal Yadav, HCA secretary, who saw to that the ailing Meher Baba got a financial assistance of Rs.3 lakh from the BCCI for medical treatment could save his life.

He succumbed to cancer despite a brief re-appearance on the cricket field after 35 radiation and five chemotherapy treatments. It was a loss which left the cricket lovers stunned. For everyone who saw this giant who was born in Rajahmundry and went on to earn a special place for himself when Andhra was not even a force to reckon with even in South Zone league, vividly remember this smiling cricketer who was rarely spotted in a disturbed mood.“Self-confidence is the key. I pray to God that I am normal once again,” he said recently. But destiny deemed it otherwise.

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