Pahlan Ratanji Umrigar “Polly Umrigar” was born on the 28th of March 1926 at Bombay or Solapur (As it was known at the time), Maharashtra.
Umrigar was born into a Parsi family with Zoroastrian roots. He made his first-class debut for Parsis at the age of 18 in the Bombay Pentangular in 1944.
his records stood from 1962 to 1978 when they were broken by a certain Sunil Gavaskar.
Umrigar was a hard man off the field. He was involved in several off-field spats. Despite his successes as skipper, he stepped down as skipper following a misunderstanding with the BCCI at the time.
Apart from Vinoo Mankand, Polly Umrigar achieved the distinction of taking five wickets and scoring a hundred runs in Tests.
Going in at No.7, he made 130 not out as India won their first ever Test match.
In 1962, Umrigar was awarded the Padma Shri award for his services to Indian Cricket. He also won the CK Nayudu trophy in 1988/89. T
. He also served as the chief selector from 1978-1982. Umrigar was diagnosed with lymph cancer and underwent chemotherapy in mid-2006. He succumbed to the disease, dying on the 7th of November 2006.