# Cricket Great Garry Sobers Dies at 89, Reviving Memories of His Old Romance With Anju Mahendru

> West Indies cricket great Garry Sobers has died at 89, reviving memories of his old, unfinished romance with Bollywood actress Anju Mahendru.

**Type:** article · **Category:** Cricket · **Published:** 2026-07-18 · **Source:** TrendKia
**Canonical:** https://trendkia.com/en/cricket/89-sala-ki-umra-men-garry-sobers-ka-nidhana-anju-mahendru-se-jura-tha-anasuna-prema-kissa-8498 · **Language:** English
**Tags:** Garry Sobers, Anju Mahendru, Rajesh Khanna, West Indies Cricket, Ferozeshah Kotla, Delhi University, Doordarshan Cricket Telecast

West Indies cricketing legend Sir Garry Sobers has died at the age of 89. He is remembered as one of the most complete all-rounders the game has ever produced, having played 93 Test matches, scored 8,032 runs at an average of 57.78, hit 26 centuries and taken 235 wickets across his career. His unbeaten innings of 365 stood as a world record for 36 years, and in 1968 he became the first batsman to hit six sixes in a single over. But Sobers's story off the field carried a quieter, largely forgotten chapter, a romance with an Indian actress that never quite worked out.

## The meeting with Anju Mahendru
The connection dates back to 1966-67, when the West Indies team toured India. It was during this tour that Sobers's name became linked with Anju Mahendru, then a rising face in Bollywood. Ravi Chaturvedi, a commentator who has written extensively on West Indies cricket, says Sobers met Mahendru during that trip. She was in a relationship with actor Rajesh Khanna at the time, but she and Sobers grew close. Their friendship deepened, and Sobers eventually proposed marriage. Mahendru accepted his ring. At a time when a romance between a foreign cricketer and an Indian actress was almost unheard of, the news became a talking point across the country. Notably, this episode predates the far more widely known relationship between Vivian Richards and Neena Gupta.

## Why the relationship fell apart
The romance did not last. Mahendru's parents disapproved of the match, and cultural differences meant the family would not let the relationship progress further. Mahendru chose to respect her family's wishes, and Sobers returned to London, effectively ending things between them. It has also been said over the years that Sobers scored several of his centuries while drinking. In a later interview, Mahendru herself admitted that she had been drawn to Sobers but that it was never a deep love. Sobers, for his part, wrote about her in his autobiography, describing her as beautiful and good natured. He noted that marriage had crossed his mind at the time, but that it simply did not happen. The two remained friends even after the relationship ended.

## Her ties to Rajesh Khanna, and life today
Anju Mahendru is now around 80 years old. Both before and after her time with Sobers, she was linked romantically with Rajesh Khanna. According to accounts of the time, Khanna proposed marriage to her in 1971, an offer she turned down; he went on to marry Dimple Kapadia. Mahendru was also linked with Imtiaz Khan afterward, but she never married. News of Sobers's death would likely have stirred old memories for her, playing out like scenes from a film. She now lives alone in Mumbai, staying close to her sister's family since her mother's death. "I am happy being alone, what will I gain from talking about medicines and blood pressure?" she has said, adding that she keeps herself occupied and stays interested in what is happening in the world.

## Sobers's old connection with Delhi University
Sobers first visited Delhi with the West Indies team in 1958-59, and during that trip he also visited Delhi University. As it happened, while the Test match was underway in the city, Delhi University's inter-college final was simultaneously being played between St. Stephen's College and Hindu College. The entire West Indies squad, given a rest day, went to watch that college match. Ravi Chaturvedi, then a Delhi University student, was in the crowd that day too. Besides Sobers, that West Indies side included fast bowler Wes Hall and batsman Rohan Kanhai. Years later, Sobers told Chaturvedi at his home in Bridgetown, Barbados, that he still could not quite believe how massive a crowd had turned up for the final of a college cricket championship.

## The 1966 Kotla Test and Doordarshan's first live telecast
Sobers returned to Delhi as West Indies captain in 1966, this time to play at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground. That Test began on December 20, 1966, roughly 60 years ago. The four-day match, played between West Indies and the Board President's XI at Kotla, drew an overflowing crowd eager to watch Sobers in action. The occasion marked a new chapter for Indian cricket, since it was the first match to be telecast live on Doordarshan. At the time, Doordarshan still functioned as part of All India Radio, only becoming a separate entity in 1976. Writing in an essay on the history of cricket commentary in India, included in a book titled Indian Cricket- Then and Now edited by Venkat Sundaram, celebrated commentator Dr. Narottam Puri recorded that the commentary for that West Indies versus Board President's XI match was handled by Joga Rao in Hindi and Devraj Puri in English. Fatehsingh Rao Gaekwad served as the expert commentator, while Dr. Narottam Puri himself worked as scorer for the commentary team; Devraj Puri, incidentally, was his father. Venkat Sundaram, a former Ranji Trophy player for Delhi, recalls that Sobers was an extremely stylish batsman, and the crowd that gathered at Kotla to watch him grew so large that police eventually had to resort to a baton charge to bring the situation under control.

## Questions & Answers

### 1. At what age did Garry Sobers die?
Garry Sobers died at the age of 89.

### 2. What were Garry Sobers's career statistics?
He played 93 Test matches, scored 8,032 runs at an average of 57.78, hit 26 centuries and took 235 wickets.

### 3. When did Anju Mahendru and Garry Sobers meet?
They met during the 1966-67 West Indies tour of India.

### 4. Why did the relationship between Sobers and Mahendru not work out?
Mahendru's family disapproved of the match, and cultural differences meant they would not let the relationship continue.

### 5. What happened between Anju Mahendru and Rajesh Khanna?
Rajesh Khanna proposed marriage to her in 1971, which she declined, and he later married Dimple Kapadia.

### 6. Where and how does Anju Mahendru live now?
Now around 80 years old, she lives alone in Mumbai and has stayed close to her sister's family since her mother's death.

### 7. When did Sobers first visit Delhi?
He first visited Delhi with the West Indies team in 1958-59 and also went to Delhi University during that trip.

### 8. Why was the 1966 Kotla Test significant?
The match, which began on December 20, 1966, was the first cricket match to be telecast live on Doordarshan.

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