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Dadabhoy Havewala

Overview

Dadabhoy Havewala (1908–1982) was an Indian cricketer active during the early decades of organised cricket in Bombay. He played first-class cricket in the Bombay Quadrangular and Pentangular tournaments, the principal domestic competitions in western India before the consolidation of the Ranji Trophy as the country's premier first-class championship.

Key facts

Full name Dadabhoy Havewala
Born 1908
Died 1982
Nationality Indian
Sport Cricket
Community association Parsi cricket (Bombay)

Background

Havewala belonged to the generation of Indian cricketers who came of age in the 1920s and 1930s, when Bombay was the principal centre of competitive cricket in the country. The city's cricketing calendar was organised around community-based teams — the Europeans, Parsis, Hindus, Muslims and later The Rest — who contested the Bombay Quadrangular and, from 1937, the Bombay Pentangular. As a Parsi cricketer, Havewala was associated with one of the oldest organised cricketing communities in India; the Parsis had fielded teams against visiting English sides as early as the 1880s and were instrumental in the early growth of the game in western India.

Career

Havewala featured in first-class matches in India during the inter-war period. The Parsi side he represented competed against the leading Hindu, Muslim and European elevens of the day, providing the principal first-class opportunity for cricketers of the community before the Pentangular was discontinued in the mid-1940s.

Significance

Players like Havewala form part of the documentary record of Indian first-class cricket in the period bridging colonial-era community tournaments and the modern Ranji Trophy structure. Their careers illustrate the central role of Bombay's communal tournaments in shaping the early talent base from which India's Test side was eventually drawn after the country's admission to Test cricket in 1932.

References