Kishore Bhimani: From colourful cricket writing to taking on Imran Khan

New Delhi, Oct 16 : When an issue cropped up in a planned unofficial India-Pakistan match in Kolkata in 1987, after the two countries didn’t clash during the immediately preceding World Cup held in the subcontinent, Imran Khan wrote a critical piece in a leading sports weekly on the failure of Indian organisers to stage the game.
Well-known writer and commentator Kishore Bhimani, who passed away on Thursday aged 80, wrote a stinging rebuttal in the next issue, and topped it up with something like “I am allergic to the odour of the fish market”.
That was Bhimani — straightforward, honest, brilliant writer/journalist, and a forceful radio and TV commentator. He always called a spade a spade. He passed way in a private nursing home in Kolkata on Thursday. Bhimani is survived by his wife and a son.
Two of Kolkata’s adopted sons – former Test players Arun Lal and Ashok Malhotra – paid rich tribute to the stalwart they knew well for many years.
“He has been my mentor, a well-wisher, a friend, and an inspiration — everything to me, at least. I always liked to read his writings and his viewpoints. He was pretty straightforward and honest, that was something I admired about him,” Lal, 65, told IANS from Kolkata.
“I knew him for many years, from the time I settled down in Kolkata [coming from north India]. I came in 1978 — 42 years ago — and I think I knew him since 1980,” said the man who represented India in Tests and ODIs between 1982 and 1989.