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From Wisden cricinfo:
Vijay Hazare dies at 89
Vijay Hazare, the former Indian captain, has died in Vadodara after a prolonged illness. Hazare, 89, was suffering from intestinal cancer and had been kept on a life-support system in a private clinic for the last couple of days. The end came on Saturday afternoon.
Hazare led India to their first Test victory, against England at Madras in 1951-52. He captained India in 14 of his 30 Tests, in which he scored 2192 runs at the impressive average of 47.65, with seven centuries - two of them in the same match, against Don Bradman's "Invincible" Australians at Adelaide in 1947-48. There were two more in his first two matches as captain, against England in that 1951-52 series.
He was one of the heaviest runscorers in the history of Indian domestic cricket, and once put together a run of 264, 81, 97, 248, 59, 309, 101 and 223 in first-class matches in 1943 and 1944. He shared a mammoth 577-run partnership with Gul Mohammad in the Ranji Trophy final between Baroda and Holkar in 1946-47, a world record for any wicket in first-class cricket.
From IndiaTimes:
In full flow, Vijay was like a flute player
Raj Singh Dungarpur
The "Gentle Giant" of Indian cricket is no more. With Vijay Hazare's death, an era in Indian cricket has come to an end. I have always been a great admirer of Vijay "Rao Saheb" Hazare.
I only played against him towards the end of his career and I can tell you, it was a very unrewarding experience. While bowling to him I made two observations - the ball always hit the middle of his bat and in full flow he always reminded me of a flute player. His left hand was always high up on the handle and the bottom hand at the base of it. Hand positions would quickly change as they came sliding down or up depending on what shot he had selected to play. It was a treat to watch him, especially if you weren't the bowler.
I had once asked Hazare saheb which bowler troubled him most. His answer was Keith Miller. I was a bit surprised because his twin centuries in Australia had come against the fearsome Ray Lindwall and Miller.
There is this famous incident during that Test match when Hazare was well set for his second century of the match. Miller, operating with the new ball bowled an outswinger on his leg and middle stump which Hazare flicked gracefully to the midwicket boundary. Miller promptly asked his captain for a fielder at midwicket, a request that was rightly turned down by Donald Bradman, who, in fact, took Miller off.
But Hazare had his reasons for singling out Miller, who he said, loved to surprise batsmen. Miller, he said, could bowl a real fast one off a few paces, while sometimes he would come tearing in and deliver a googly or a leg-break - in between some lethal swinging deliveries. That showed the other side of Hazare - the respect he had for his opponents.
In the 1952 Leeds Test, India were four wickets down with no runs on the board. In the middle were Hazare and Phadkar. I was a wideeyed kid then listening to BBC commentary. A commentator was saying: "India's captain and their best batsman has just played out a maiden, meeting each ball with the middle of his bat. It appears that this man has nerves of steel." At this point, John Arlott interjected: "I beg to differ, this man has no nerves at all."
Phadkar later told me that during one of their midpitch conferences Hazare had observed: "The ball is doing nothing." Padhkar had then timidly reminded him: "Rao saheb, but we are 4 down for zero."
Hazare had then nodded and said: "What has happened has happened. Now let's get some runs." Hazare got a century and the two added over 100 runs. That was the man for you - one who could stand like a rock amidst ruins.