Former cricketers VVS Laxman, S L Venkatapathy Raju and Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) president G Vivekanand expressed their grief over the sudden demise of former BCCI General Manager MV Sridhar on Monday. Veteran players visited his place to give homage.

Venkatapathy Raju said “It is very sad. This is a shock. We played cricket together for long. We shared a room (during playing days). This is a big loss for all of us.”

Vivekanand feels this is a big loss for cricket and said “He played Ranji Trophy well. He did good work in cricket administration. He efficiently handled cricket affairs as BCCI General Manager. He negotiated well in BCCI-ICC issues. We thought cricket would benefit if he becomes BCCI general secretary.”

MV Sridhar passed away yesterday at the age of 51 after a massive cardiac arrest. Recently, he stepped down as BCCI General Manager and was a pillar of Hyderabad’s batting line-up in 1990’s along with VVS Laxman. Sridhar captained the team as well in the absence of Mohammad Azharuddin.

Also, he had a good career behind him at the first-class level. In 97 matches for Hyderabad and South Zone, he managed 6,701 runs at an average of 48.91 while his highest score was 366.