| Prakash Poddar, the talent spotter who first recommended MS Dhoni to BCCI, dies at 82 in Hyderabad | | | agencies
NEW DELHI, Jan 3: Former Bengal batter Prakash Poddar, best known for being one of the two talent spotters who suggested a certain MS Dhoni's name to the BCCI bigwigs, has died in Hyderabad, according to information received from Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) sources. Poddar, who played for both Bengal and Rajasthan, was 82 years old and used to live in Hyderabad where he breathed his last on December 29. Poddar, a fine batter in the 1960s who made it to the Indian Test squad for a home series against England in 1962, had 11 first-class hundreds to his name at an average of just under 40. Poddar and his former Bengal teammate Raju Mukherjee's role in recommending Mahendra Singh Dhoni's name to erstwhile BCCI's Talent & Research Development Wing (TRDW) head Dilip Vengsarkar is now a part of cricketing folklore. "PC da (as he was fondly called) and Raju (Mukherjee) were TRDOs (Talent and Reserch Development Officers) and Dhoni at that time was playing for Bihar (before Jharkhand got BCCI status) in a Ranji one dayers in Jamshedpur. Both of them saw his big hits and recommended his name to Dilip," veteran sports journalist Makarand Waingankar, who had a big role in setting up the TRDO, recalled fondly. "PC da felt that a guy with such tremendous hand-eye co-ordination would be lost playing in the East Zone leg and BCCI needed to nurture and groom him. The rest is history," said Waingankar.
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