Here is a brief listing of those who passed away in the calendar year 2021.
There are two separate tables-for Test players and for others. The others include prominent FC and ODI players, female cricketers, journalists, administrators and umpires. The choice here is more subjective, depending on how well they appeared to be known,
It is interesting to see a number of players who lived to be 100 or more, including Eileen Ash who crossed 110.
References-Cricinfo, Wikipedia
There are two lists here.
First for Test players:
and then for others (including prominent limited-overs players, female players, domestic players and others connected with the game):
The most well-known Test players here include ED Weekes, JH Edrich, JR Reid, DM Jones and CPS Chauhan.
Some of the deaths were clearly linked to Covid, notably that of CPS Chauhan.
A point of interest is that JE Manners was the longest-lived first-class player at the time of his death at 105. Another centenarian Vasant Raiji passed away at 100. For a few months he was the longest living first-class player.
Rajinder Goel was one of the leading wicket-takers in Indian domestic cricket but was unfortunate to play at a time when there were too many established spinners competing for Test places.
“Chuni” Goswami had a good record in domestic cricket but he was better known for his soccer skills. He captained India to a rare gold medal in the Asian Games besides playing in the Rome Olympics.
A summary of notable cricketers who passed away during 2019. I should have identified all Test players, besides other players and officials who were reasonably well known. Information was taken from Cricinfo and Cricketarchive.
Vasant Raiji, who played in first-class cricket for Bombay and Baroda in 1938-50, celebrates his 100th birthday on Republic Day, 2020:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/player/33480.html
A news item from 26 Jan 2020:
Among other things, he wrote some cricket-related books including a biography of one-Test player LP Jai.
At this stage, it is worth looking at the oldest first-class cricketers from all countries. This is one of the subjects where Wikipedia is more useful than Cricinfo:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_oldest_cricketers#Longest-lived_first-class_cricketers
From this, we can see that Mr Raiji is the 24th first-class cricketer to cross 100.
The only other player from India is the better known DB Deodhar, who lived to be 101+.
The only Test player to cross 100 was the South African bowler N Gordon, 103+ :
http://www.espncricinfo.com/southafrica/content/player/45239.html
All of his 5 Tests were in the 1938-39 SA v Eng series, including the famous timeless Test:
Meanwhile, we look at other long-lived Test players.
The longest-lived Test players of all time:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_oldest_cricketers#Longest-lived_Test_cricketers
New Zealand’s Eric Tindill is the only other Test player to cross 99. India’s representative is MJ Gopalan at 94+.
In case you are thinking of the strange case of C Ramaswami, it is now generally accepted that he died in Jan 1990 at 93+ :
http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/player/33059.html
Interestingly, Wisden carried his obituary in the 2015 edition only in the “supplementary obituaries” section. This included the obituaries of some who were killed in the Great War and had somehow not been covered by Wisden until then. Better late (by 100 years) than never.
The oldest living Test cricketers are here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_oldest_cricketers#Oldest_living_Test_cricketers
This is led by South Africa’s John Watkins (96+) while India’s representative is DK Gaekwad (91+), captain of the 1959 team and father of AD Gaekwad.
Some of these lists are also in Cricinfo but they are not updated frequently. For instance, the list of oldest-lived Test players
http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283742.html
includes at least two (CK Singh of WI and Rajinder Pal of India) whose deaths have been reported elsewhere.
Also see:http://stats.espncricinfo.com/ci/content/records/283740.html
Another long-lived Indian FC player was BK Garudachar, who celebrated his 99th birthday soon before he died in 2016:
http://www.espncricinfo.com/india/content/player/29090.html
Here is a list of prominent cricketers who passed away in 2018. Apart from male Test players who are covered in full, other categories covered here would be female international players, ODI and T20I players, Test umpires, administrators and major domestic players. The last two categories are subjective, depending largely on whether the compiler has heard of them earlier.
This is delayed until the end of September 2019 as some deaths are reported late-sometimes even years later for lesser-known players.
Information is summarized from the obituaries in Cricinfo and Cricketarchive.
Here is a note about Bevan Congdon: https://abn397.wordpress.com/2018/02/13/bevan-congdon-r-i-p-and-his-indian-connection/
A quick look at prominent cricketing figures who passed away in 2017. This does include all Test players. “Others” include major ODI and FC players, Test umpires, prominent female players, administrators and journalists. This list would have to be subjective as this writer is more familiar with cricket in India and England.
Information has been taken from Cricinfo and Cricket Archive. Between them, they should not have missed anyone.
Note that this blog contains obituaries for 2014 onward which have appeared in the beginning of 2015 and subsequent years.
This covers various people connected with cricket who passed away in the calendar year 2016. It includes all Test players and several other categories such as Test umpires, prominent journalists and administrators, prominent female cricketers and better-known domestic cricketers (mainly from India and England). Some subjectivity is involved here.
This had earlier appeared in early 2017. It has been revised in June 2018 with additional information.
Or, if you prefer:
and
I had earlier done similar summaries for 2014 and 2015, which can be found elsewhere on this blog.
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