India spinner’s world-record spell of 21.5 consecutive overs without conceding a run is still celebrated 50 years after it ‘inflicted sore wounds on the game’
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Fred Fane was surprised to find he had died but there it was in print in the 1956 Wisden, a 350-word eulogy about life and times playing for
England and Essex. Five years later, when Fane really did die, they only gave him 230, and a good chunk were by way of explanation: “Owing to a similarity of initials, Wisden reported his death when he was 79. The man concerned was Francis L. Fane, his cousin.” Some people, like Fane, get to read their obituaries, and some people don’t need to because they already know what they’re going to say anyway. RG “Bapu” Nadkarni, who died in Mumbai last week, aged 86, was one of the second lot.
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