Indian sports legend Chuni Goswami passed away after suffering a cardiac arrest yesterday. He was 82.
No sooner than it happened, condolences started pouring in and people began talking about his brilliance in detail – which makes sense when you take Chuni’s enormous stature into account.
He was jack, and the master of all trades. He did everything.
Starting from sports that brought him most laurels: Cricket and football. He played Ranji Trophy for West Bengal and even participated in 2 finals (captained in 1), losing both to a star-studded Mumbai.
In total, Chuni played 46 first class matches, wherein he scored 1592 runs, with the help of seven 50s and 47 wickets.
So it’s crazy to think that cricket was a sport he just picked up after his football career started nearing the end.
Chuni was a football star.
He started playing the sport as an 8-year-old and ended up leading the country to Asian Games gold in 1962 and Asia Cup silver in 1964. Talking about his mindset, former India cricketer Milind Rege told Sportstar, The Hindu:
Chuni da was one of those rare sportsmen who excelled in every discipline, be it football or cricket. He was tremendously fit, and being such a great footballer, the mindset was entirely different. He was full of courage, an action-oriented player.
Chinu was also known to have tried his hand in tennis and hockey at local club level.
And before we finish, he also acted in Bengali movie Prothom Prem.