A shame Team India has no Parsi players, says Farokh Engineer

The Parsi community celebrated its New Year on Sunday and Engineer, who played 46 Tests between 1961 and 1975 has expressed his regret that he is the last in a short line.

“Yes, it is shame that India has not produced enough Parsi cricketers in the history of 80 years of India’s Test cricket”, admitted Farokh Engineer.

Speaking exclusively from England, he however, also says, “It is also remarkable that four Parsi cricketers played together and this is an achievement for the community”.

Nari Contractor, Polly Umrigar, Farokh Engineer and Rusi Surti played two Tests together in West Indies in 1962.

“Though I am proud to be an Indian, I would have liked to see more Parsi players in the Indian team. But I don’t know whether I would be ever happen to see it”, the 75-year-old Engineer said.

“The game of cricket requires hard work and the young generation is not coming up to work that hard”, Engineer admitted.

“Perhaps it is because of our minor community that we are not able to see Parsis in Indian team”, he concluded.

Nari Contractor, another Parsi, who played 31 Tests for India agrees with Farokh Engineer. “We have only a community of 85,000 people across the world and boys don’t come forward at Mumbai’s Parsi Gymkhana for net practice”.