Umrigar's death was not only a great loss for Indian cricket but also an "irreparable" loss to the game, cricketers past and present said, a day after Umrigar passed away after a protracted battle with cancer.

Cricket legend Sunil Gavaskar, who broke quite a few national records set up by Umrigar during his illustrious career, said he had learnt the nuances of the game from him.

"I have learnt so much from him that I can't pinpoint one particular thing. He once told me that I try and take my first run too early. He told me to take at least the first few runs safely," Gavaskar said.

Gavaskar said though Umrigar, the first Indian batsman to score over 3,000 runs in Tests and the first to cross the double figures in the number of Test tons, had achieved so much, he never once spoke about his feats.

"The only time he spoke about his cricket was when discussing strategies on how to get people out. Even that was a great learning experience," said the man who was the first to scale cricket's Mount Everest of 10,000 Test runs.

Sachin Tendulkar described Umrigar as a perfect gentleman and said Indian cricket was "passing through a bad phase and the death of Umrigar was part of this cup of woes".

"The time is not good for Indian cricket and the passing away of Umrigar is another sad event. He was a great cricketer and even more importantly a perfect gentleman," said the star batsman.

Chairman of Selectors Dilip Vengsarkar said, "He was our manager and I learned a lot from him. He was a fine human being apart from being a great cricketer. His death has left a void which will be difficult to fill." Fomer India captains Chandu Borde and Ajit Wadekar and ex-Indian Cricket Board president Raj Singh Dungarpur, also hailed the all-round contributions to the game rendered by Umrigar.

"Two weeks ago I had visited his residence along with Raj Singh. There were tears in our eyes and I still remember him taking my hand in his and talking about incidents that happened during our playing days," said Borde.

"He was a simple man with an outstanding knowledge about the game. He knew the game inside out. He used to study each batsman and place fielders accordingly (as captain). He was always concerned about the team's performance." "Umrigar was one cricketer who was respected by all international cricketers. He was also a very religious man and used to visit Meher Baba (ashram) at Ahmednagar every year," the former India all rounder recalled.

Wadekar said that whatever little he did well as captain for India was all due to the guidance and mentoring that he received from Umrigar who was his first Ranji Trophy captain.

"His death is a great loss to Indian cricket. He was my first Ranji Trophy captain. I learned a lot from him. Whatever little I did as captain (he won three back-to-back Test series between 1971 and 1972) was because of the guidance, encouragement and inspiration received from Umrigar," Wadekar said.