Veteran off-spinner Ramesh Powar, who had earlier announced that he would be retiring at the end of the ongoing Ranji Trophy 2015-16 season, played his last game in whites for Gujarat against his former team Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium from the 1st to 4th of December 2015. Gujarat were nudged out of the competition by Madhya Pradesh, who levelled with the Parthiv Patel-led team on points and qualified for the quarter-finals on the basis of a better Net run-rate.
Powar was felicitated by the Mumbai Cricket Association at the end of the last match of the league phase in Mumbai for his service to the game. "I was lucky to end my career at the ground where it all started,” he said while speaking to the media later and added, the fact that he won’t be playing in whites again is just sinking in. However, he is keen to continue to contribute to the game and looks forward to help groom spinners. The 37-year old has already been involved in coaching for about a year at an individual level. An off-spinner from the classical mould, Powar specially thanked coaches Ramakant Achrekar and Vasu Paranjape for shaping his career and encouraging him to play cricket. He also thanked his family, especially his sister and wife for their support through the highs and lows.
Powar has six wickets from two Test matches and has claimed 34 wickets in 31 ODIs for India. In first-class cricket he has claimed 470 wickets in 148 matches and has 142 wickets from 113 List A games. He has also played 28 twenty20 matches and picked 14 wickets in the shortest format of the game.
