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The sports journalistic fraternity of India on Saturday woke up to the profoundly sad news of cricket writer Santosh Suri passing away at the age of 68 in Lucknow. He is survived by his wife and daughter. Suri contributed regularly to this newspaper over the last decade after his retirement from The Times of India.
Playing the game and being a good swing bowler in his younger days contributed to his expertise in cricket writing. His Ahmedabad-based contemporary, Sunil Vaidya told us on Saturday that Suri did some of his education in Jamnagar and had he not taken up journalism, he could have played for a state like Saurashtra. He spoke fluent Kathiawar Gujarati.
Suri didn’t have to be prompted or always assigned to do a cricket piece. A comment on the big news of the day would land up in our inboxes. He was versatile to the point of becoming one of our go-to men for a comment on a controversial occurrence of Pan India importance. Whenever Kuldeep Yadav faced a lack of opportunities, Suri would come up with a piece. Not only because the cricketer hails from his state of Uttar Pradesh and he had access to the people who coached Kuldeep, but also because Suri felt that a wrist spinner added a cutting edge to an attack.
Suri covered World Cups in both formats, Champions Trophies, home and away series and IPL games. His last article appeared in these columns on Friday.
His reports were to-the-point and the only time we recall him missing a deadline was when the WI-FI misbehaved in one of the many press boxes he graced.
His quiet, kind, and pleasant ways in those media enclosures will be missed by reporters young and old.
This newspaper has lost a fine cricket writer, but the loss to cricket journalism in an overall sense seems greater.
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