Most shameful incident in the history of Indian cricket; bowler beats batsman in the finals of this prestigious tournament

Indian politics saw its black day in 1975 during Indira Gandhi’s Emergency and Indian cricket’s black day came a decade later in 1991. The incident that shook entire India and cricket fans around the world.

It was 1991 Duleep Trophy finals between North Zone and the West Zone when an on-field spat between Raman Lamba and Rashid Patel became ugly.

The finals that took place at Keenan Stadium saw North Zone piling up 729 runs for 9 with the help of Raman Lamba, Kapil Dev and Manoj Prabhakar’s century. West Zone players Ravi Shastri, Sanjay Manjrekar and Dilip Vengsarkar too helped their team with a century each but couldn’t help much as they were bundled out for 561 runs on Day 5.

Raman Lamba opened with Ajay Jadeja, batting without pressure they reached 59 in 9.5 overs without a loss. Frustrated Patel bowled close to the danger area to Lamba, when the batsman expressed his annoyance Rashid overstepped and deliberately bowled a beamer. The next thing we know that, Patel picked up a stump and hit Lamba. Lamba went on to hide behind Jadeja.

Play was called off 15 minutes before tea. A disciplinary committee, with Madhavrao Scindia, Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi, and Raj Singh Dungarpur as members, suspended Patel for 13 months, and for some reason, Lamba for 10.