The legendary Vijay Hazare, now 88 and in feeble health, traveled from Baroda to be honored at the event (he is flanked by contemporary Polly Umrigar to his right and his grandson to his left). Making his debut at 31 -- World War II took away the best years of Hazarre's international career -- at Lord's in 1946, he played 30 Tests, hit 7 centuries, 9 fifties and took 20 wickets with his medium pace.

With an impressive Test average of 47.65 he was the first Indian to score two Test centuries in Australia (against Don Bradman's side, we may add). Hazare captained India 14 times and was discarded as player and skipper after the fifth Test at Kingston against the West Indies in the 1952/53 series.

Hazare is currently 5th on the all-time India list behind Sachin Tendulkar (56.57/107 Tests), Rahul Dravid (54.37/71 Tests), Vinod Kambli (54.20/17 Tests) and Sunil Gavaskar (51.12/125 Tests).

Also see: Getting fit for battle

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