The Bangalore newspapers and television channels have done a great disfavour to its readers by virtually ignoring the passing away of the Grand Old Man of Karnataka cricket, Dr.K.Thimmappaiah on July 27.That is generally the case with regard to treatment of the death of most sportsmen of yesteryears, whether they rose to stardom or were ordinary. One or two English newspapers, who waste much newsprint on cricket, even censored the death of Thimmappaiah, who was a synonym for Karnataka cricket and social service. Another english daily dealt with his death through a small matter of fact obituary. The TV channels in Kannada in particular, had no time for him.

Thimmappaiah deserved a far better treatment considering that his contributions were not confined to cricket .He was a social worker of the highest order. He was a popular medical practitioner of Old Bangalore, and belonged to a vanishing tribe of general practitioners which is being sidelined by the specialist doctors especially in our cities.  He was a former President of the Indian Medical Association (State branch) and had rendered yeoman service for organizations like the St.John's Ambulance Association and the Red Cross Society. However his best contribution was the opening of a school for the mentally retarded children, Mano Vikasa Kendra. Despite his advancing years, he struggled for years with the Bangalore Mahanagarapalike to allot a site for the school at Malleswaram. Another struggle followed to build the institution.

Thimmappaiah was 92 at the time of his death and had an almost 70 year old association with big time cricket. It was in 1934, one  year after  the Mysore State Cricket Association was born, that the then 18 year old became a member of the famed Bangalore United Cricket Club (BUCC) , the oldest cricket association of the State founded in 1919. He had the distinction of being the first Mysore cricketer to score a century in the Ranji Trophy. That came on January 1, 1941 against the star studded Madras team. His cricketing career was shortened by the Second World War in which he served in the Army Medical Corps rising to the rank of a captain. He could play in only ten Ranji Trophy matches retiring in 1953. A right hand batsman with a not so elegant stance, he scored 403 runs in the tournament averaging 23.71.

Thimmappaiah was one of the many Mysore (Karnataka) cricketers to miss Test cricket. A match against the Second Commonwealth XI led by the England wicket keeper Leslie Ames (1949-50) was all the international exposure he got despite his talents. During an informal chat some years ago, he had rated as his best the 80 odd runs he scored against a Bombay XI in an exhibition match played on the Hindu Gymkhana ground in Mumbai in 1948. The Bombay team had the cream of Indian cricket those days, "The Tendulkar of the 1930s and 1940s" Vijay Merchant and his younger brother Uday Merchant, K.C.Ibrahim (who died in Karachi in recent months), Rusi Modi, , Polly Umrigar, K.K.Tarapore, M.R.Rege and Madhav Mantri !As a sports administrator, he rose to become the President of the Karnataka State Cricket Association, was also associated with the Board of Control for Cricket in India and was the manager for a few Indian Test teams.