Churi, the left-hander with the right approach

Naresh Churi. Pic/mid-day archives

There are international cricket heroes and domestic dadas. There are also heroes of coaching nets. Naresh Churi, the former India Schools, Railways and Central Zone batsman was one such player. Churi, 60, passed away in Mumbai on Monday due a brief illness, said a friend. His funeral procession started at Shushrusha Hospital, Dadar.

Pravin Amre, one of the several India players to have emerged from the Ramakant Achrekar stable, has an interesting connection with left-handed Churi. The right-hander who marked his Test debut with a hundred against South Africa at Durban in 1992, told mid-day that Churi was a batsman whom young Achrekar trainees like him watched in the nets. "Naresh was Achrekar Sir's favourite.

"We used to watch how Naresh hit the ball hard in the nets and I loved watching him field; a sharp fielder. While I played for Shardashram's Giles Shield team, he was in the Harris Shield team. And he was my teammate at Railways when I joined them. I watched his hundred in the 1987-88 Ranji Trophy final against [winners] Tamil Nadu. I was dropped for that game," said Amre.

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On the club circuit, Churi was a regular for Shivaji Park Youngsters, which was the second club for Sanjay Manjrekar and Sachin Tendulkar. Manjrekar and Churi played in the same Bombay Schools team in 1979-80, 1980-81 and 1981-82.

In the summer of 1982, Churi was part of an India Schools team to the West Indies. Chandrakant Pandit remembered Churi as a gritty, street smart cricketer. "He was a very stylish left-handed batsman. We played a lot of practice matches together as members of Achrekar Sir's nets. Sir always believed he would play for Mumbai, but it was not to be," said Pandit. Churi later took up coaching.