Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji, later Maharaja Jam Saheb Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji of Nawanagar, went to England for studies at the age of 16. Popularly known as Ranji, he was the first Indian to play Test cricket albeit representing England.
Cricket in England
He had played some cricket in while studying at Rajkumar (prince) College, but he was more inclined towards tennis. It was in England that he decided that he would hone his skills in cricket. His mentor, noticing that Ranji was moving away from short-pitched balls decided to tie his back foot to the pitch when practicing. With only one foot left to keep his balance while playing a shot, Ranji developed and excelled at his famed leg glance. He also had a vicious square cut.
He played first for Trinity followed by Cambridge and then Marylebone cricket Club before debuting in first-class cricket for Sussex Cricket Club in 1886. In his first season, he aggregated 2,780 runs, a record, at an average of 57.86 and was named among the Wisden Cricketers of the Year. Despite his form, he was ignored for the first Test Match against the touring Australian side.
Ranji’s Test debut
Ranji made his Test debut on 16 July 1896 against Australia. After a quiet 62 in the first innings, he scored a brilliant 154 not out in the second, when England was asked to follow-on. It was the perfect launching pad for Ranji’s fame in the cricketing world. He failed in both the innings in the third Test and did not take the field on the last day because of an asthma attack.
On the 1897-98 tour to Australia, although ill, Ranji scored an attacking 175 scored in just 125 minutes in the first innings of the first Test. It was the highest individual Test score for England, a record which survived for six years. This was the only test that England won in the series. Ranji scored a 50 in each of the remaining Tests except the fifth and last.
First-class and Test records
He scored heavily in the English first-class matches playing for Sussex till the end of his career in 1912. He scored 24,692 runs at an average of 56.37 with 72 centuries. Geoffrey Boycott broke the record for batting average in 1986. Ranji had many other records in his name including scoring more than 1,000 runs in successive months of one season and scoring more than 3,000 runs in two. He had scored 1,000 runs or more in ten successive seasons.
Ranji played 15 Tests for England from 1896 to 1902, all against the Australians, and scored 989 runs at an average of 44.96 runs with two centuries. He retired in all forms of cricket in 1912. Crowned as the Maharajah of Nawanagar in 1907, he returned to India and concentrated on his duties as a ruler of his kingdom.
The Ranji Trophy
In 1933, Ranji died of a heart failure at the Jamnagar Palace. Sir Neville Cardus described him as “the Midsummer Night’s Dream of cricket…” One Australian player was to say “…he is more than a batsman – He is nothing less than a juggler…” He was so popular in England that any match that he played in drew larger than normal crowds. Ranji is called the Father of Indian Cricket.
The following year, Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala donated the Ranji Trophy in Ranji’s honour. The Ranji Trophy tournament is played annually and has been the mainstay of domestic cricket in India since the 1934-35 seasons. Played among state and regional teams, it is the breeding ground for cricketers who go on to represent India in international cricket.
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