Journalist Javed Akhtar passes away

Journalist and former national basketball player Javed Akhtar died in Mumbai after a brief illness.He travelled to almost all cricket-playing nations reporting on tours by India and Pakistan teams.

Journalist and former national basketball player Javed Akhtar died in Mumbai on Wednesday after a brief illness.

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Javed, 58, is survived by his wife Nayantara and three sons.

Javed, a qualified engineer, began his career with Western Railway, one of the country's top basketball teams in the 1970s, and played alongside one of India's greatest players Abbas Moontasir in an era when some of the top basketballers of the country were around. He played for Bombay University and represented Maharashtra and the Railways in the national championships.

He quit the Railways to become a sports journalist. He started his journalistic career with the now defunct Sportsweek and then joined The Daily. He then worked for the Arab News in Jeddah on various desks for 15 years before returning home over a year ago.

He was the media in-charge of the visiting Pakistani cricket team in 2007 and then joined the public relations agency Adfactors as a consultant looking after the media accreditation and publicity of the Indian Premier League (IPL).

Javed travelled to almost all cricket-playing nations reporting on tours by India and Pakistan teams.