India's first ever MBE awardee cricketer has misplaced his medal

M.V. Bobjee Narasimha Rao, India’s first ever cricketer to receive an MBE (Member of British Empire), lost the prestigious medal recently when he attended a college function in Hyderabad. Narasimha Rao, popularly known as Bobby Rao featured in 4 Test matches for India and represented Hyderabad in the Indian domestic cricket. He also played cricket in Ireland and coached a few Ireland cricketers as well.

He was conferred with the MBE medallion in December 2012 for his contributions towards promotion of cricket and for the community service he did through cricket during the testing times in Northern Ireland for the ethnic community. Thus becoming the first Indian cricketer to receive a British medallion.

On 28th of January, Narasimha Rao was invited as the chief guest for the annual day function of Aurora College in Hyderabad and he carried the MBE medal along with him for the event at the Lalitha Kala Thoranam. According to him, he took a cab to the venue and in the due course, he misplaced the valuable medal.

Soon after the incident, Narasimha recorded a statement with the police and they are currently investigating it. To spread their efforts in the searching Narasimha has released a statement to the media during the 4th day of the ongoing Test match between India and Bangladesh at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad.

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The 62-year-old was the last man to lead the Hyderabad team to Ranji Trophy title in 1986/87 season and also played in various tournaments in Ireland and also represented them in a couple of List A games in 1994 and 1995. He played an important role in developing the batting of the Ireland cricketers namely William Porterfield, O’Brien brothers, Paul Stirling, Gary Wilson and also the current England limited-overs captain Eoin Morgan and also served as the assistant coach for Ireland in the 2011 World Cup.

Narasimha Rao scored 4845 runs in first-class cricket at a healthy average of 40 including 9 centuries. He featured in 4 Test matches for India at home in 1978 and 1979. He was back in Hyderabad during 2014-2015 to take up the Director role of Hyderabad Cricket Academy of Excellence.

Apart from his batting, Narasimha Rao was a well-known leg spinner and is now a part of the HCA’s spin academy as well, which was started last year to improve the quality of spinners under the association.