P. M. K. Mohandas

Ponnambath Mambally Krishnan Mohandas (31 January 1948 – 17 October 2004) was an Indian cricketer who played at first-class level for Kerala during the 1972–73 season. He was a right-handed batsman and right-arm medium-fast bowler.

Mohandas was born in Mahé, in what was then part of French India but is now a district of the Union Territory of Puducherry.[1] He played state-level schools cricket for Kerala, which borders Mahé, in the early 1960s,[2] but did not play for the senior team until October 1972, when he made his Ranji Trophy debut against Andhra.[3] Mohandas's first match was the first Ranji match of the season for Kerala, and he was one of eight debutants from both sides in a game where play was possible only on two days. He opened the bowling with Mohammed Ibrahim in Andhra's only innings without taking a wicket, but when coming in as a number-eleven batsman scored 24 runs out of a 29-run last-wicket stand with Ponmanichi Mackey.[4] In the next match, against Hyderabad, Mohandas took 3/33 to be Kerala's best bowler in the first innings, as the side slumped to a 10-wicket loss.[5] Given only four overs against Mysore (now Karnataka), he went wicketless as his side was defeated within two days,[6] and was then dropped for Kerala's final match of the season, against Tamil Nadu.[3]

In October 2004, at the age of 56, Mohandas died at his Thiruvananthapuram residence of a "massive heart attack".[7][8] P. M. K. Raghunath, his younger brother, also played first-class cricket for Kerala, making his debut during the 1973–74 season.[1] Their father, P. M. Krishnan, had had a longstanding involvement with what is now the Kerala Cricket Association.[9] A teammate of Mohandas in all three of his first-class appearances was his cousin, A. P. M. Gopalakrishnan, whose father, P. M. Raghavan, and uncle, P. M. Anandan (both uncles of Mohandas and his brother), each played at first-class level for Travancore-Cochin, Kerala's predecessor.[1] Outside of cricket, the family's business was baking.[10]