Former Vidarbha Ranji Captain Praveen Hinganikar injured in car accident, wife dies on spot

Former Vidarbha captain and coach Praveen Hinganikar and his wife met with a horrific car accident on Tuesday, April 18. The accident turned out to be fatal for the couple as Hinganikar’s wife Suvarna, 52, died on the spot while the former cricketer is seriously injured and is admitted to a private hospital in Mehkar for treatment. The car crash reportedly took place along the Samruddhi Expressway in the Buldhana district of Maharashtra.

According to reports, the 56-year-old, retired cricketer was driving the car as the couple was returning from Nagpur when it rammed into a truck that was allegedly wrongly parked on the expressway. A case has also been registered against the truck driver in Mehkar Police Station.

“The trucker had erred by parking his vehicle at a shady place on the highway. Hinganikar probably failed to spot that the truck wasn’t moving and rammed into it from behind. We have registered a case against the truck driver," Assistant Police Inspector Amar Nagre of Mehkar police station was quoted as saying by The Times of India.

Hinganikar has been engaged by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) since 2018 and is currently working as chief curator for BCB. He was also one of the 12 curators to complete the Level-1 course conducted by the BCCI in July 2016.

Under his supervision, he developed the pitches and outfields as per international standards at Zahur Ahmed Chaudhary Stadium, Chattogram, and Cox Bazar stadiums.

Hinganikar worked as chief curator at Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA)

Praveen Hinganikar has earlier worked as chief curator at Vidarbha Cricket Association (VCA) in Nagpur between 2008 and 2018 and developed the Jamtha stadium pitch and outfield.

The 56-year-old was regarded as a fine all-rounder during his playing days and played 52 first-class and 17 List-A matches for Vidarbha between 1983 and 1996. Hinganikar amassed 2805 runs and 47 wickets in first-class cricket while 390 runs and seven wickets in List A cricket. 

After his retirement, he coached the Vidarbha Ranji team for a few seasons before taking up the role of curator.