The Wizard of the willow

In the summer of 1934 the Ranji Trophy, for which the states of India wage a battle royal, was launched by the Maharaja Bhupindra Singh of Patiala. It is a fitting cricketing memorial to Ranji, Colonel His Highness Shri Sir Ranjithsinji Vibhaji, Maharajah Jam Saheb of Nawanagar, GBE, KCSI, the Midsummer night's dream of cricket, as Neville Cardus put it. Yet to many of the present generation, Ranji is little more than a name. It was an irony of fate that the greatest cricketer India ever produced, should never have played first-class cricket for or in India!. Here is an attempt to put into perspective the complex situation of the remarkable man who was both a legendary English Cricketer and an Indian Prince at a crucial time in Indian history.

Ranji was born on 10 September 1872 at Sarodar, a small village in the Western Province of Kathiawar. Sarodav near Jammagar, in Ranji's time was an arcadia, inaccessible and remote. In its special way, it was a kind of paradise and its charm was of site and the imagination, scarcely of facilities.

Ranji was proud of his lineage , stemming as it did from Loard Krishna and his clan, the Jadejas, were Rajput warriors. They claimed descendancy from the Persian Ruler, Jamshed, deriving from him their title. Later, the Jadejas migrated to Jamnagar in 1535. It is said Jam Rawal, founder of the present house , was told in his dreams to seek pastures new in Kathiawar. After a series of bloody encounters, Jam Rawal became the undisputed master of the whole of Kathiawar and established his capital, calling it Nawanagar, or "new town".

In spite of enlightened rulers who were creative and inspired, there was a curious shortage of male heirs in the family and Vibhaji who succeeded the throne five years before the Mutiny of 1857 was driven to adopt Ranjithinhji, the second son of an ideal Rajput gentleman, Jiwantsinghji. At the age of eight, Ranji entered Rajkumar College, a Public school in Saurashtra. Chester Maenaghten the Principal, initiated Ranji into the magic world of the Willow and when he died in 1896, he had bequeathed to the world a genius; his pupil had compiled 2,780 runs, the highest aggregate recorded in an English summer.

In 1888, Ranji went to England and joined St. Faith's, Cambridge. RS Goodchild, the Headmastrer prophesied a bright future for the lad from India whose gifts were rough and untutored with no orthodox defence at all, though tennis, shooting and billiards captured his attention, at Cambridge , he was determined to enrich his knowledge on the game and practice it the hard way. In 1892 he became a regular member of the Trinity college team but despite consistent performances in the college matches he was not in the university eleven that year. That he was an Indian held back his inclusion, a mistake which the Cambridge captain, FS Jackson, later admitted and regretted. In 1893 he got his blue - the first Indian to win a Blue, but his progress towards it, in the year 1890-92 was not spectacular. However he was a keen student of the game and innings by innings, he adjusted and improved his technique. Chosen to represent Cambridge against Oxford at Lord's, Ranji did not set the Thames on fire. He made 9 in his first innings and 0 in the second but his fielding stood out. At slip he took three good catches. CB Fry in his autobiography , "Life Worth Living", recorded, "he fielded marvellously".

In the same year he was chosen for the South of England against the Australians and the Gentlemen vs Players at the Oval. His Cambridge figures were nothing extraordinary - 386 runs for an average of 29.9, but he was the third in the Cambridge batting averages.

'Run-get' Singhji, as his Cambridge colleagues called him, was approached by Surrey to join them, but Ranj had other ideas. He wanted to qualify for Sussex. Sussex was a comparatively weak side and Ranji was sure of his place. Beside he had friends there, CB Fry and WL Murdoch. The wet summer of 1894 saw little cricket played. In all Ranji played sixteen innings making 387 runs at an average of 32. Playing for MCC against Cambridge at Lord's under WG Grace, Ranji made 94. For the South against the North at Scarborough, he made 44 and 52 not out.

But the best was yet to be. The year 1895 heralded a new dawn. In his first match for Sussex against MCC at Lord's Ranji scored 77 not out and 150, "Playing in a fashion which beggars description", took six wickets and made two catches, a total of 1,227 runs were scored in the match. 48 year old WG Grace made 103 in MCC's second innings and MCC won by 19 runs. In all Ranji made 4 centuries during the season, a total of 1,766 runs at an average of 50.16, only Grace and Maclaren where above him in the first class averages. 'Punch' paid tribute: "Great Grace to young Maclaren yields his place, and Ranjitsinghji follows after Grace".

Like Pied Piper, the bloom of the tropics, already in his second season in the first class game, Ranji had acquired a following. A much talked about character, he had grown into a living legend. 1896 was an Australian summer, Harry Trott leading a strong Australian side. Ranji was in full cry, 30 and 74 against MCC, 64 and 33 against Yorkshire. He had established himself as the most exciting batsman in the country. Judged from any standards, Ranji should have been a certainty for the Lords Test on 22nd June. Those were days when Test teams were not chosen by an independent selection committee, but by the country at whose ground the matches was to be played. Lord Harris, President of the MCC, six years previously Governor of Bombay, was not in favour of playing what he called "birds of passage". Ranji was not selected, a decision that invested the wrath of the public and the press. The second Test was to be played at Old Trafford and the wise men of Lancashire had no hesitation in including Ranji. Australia batted first and made 412. England made a dreadful start and Ranji batting at number three was caught by Trott off Mckibbin for 62. England replied with 231 and faced with a deficit off 181, England had to follow on. At draw of stumps on the second day, England were 72 behind and the cream of the batting had gone. Ranji rose to the occasion and played the finest innings of his career. He took the total to 305 and remained unbeaten with a scintillating innings of 154 made in 190 minutes with twenty three hits to the fence. Wisden described it as "marvellous". Ranji became the first Indian to play Test cricket and the second batsman after WG Grace to score a hundred on his initial appearance. George Giffen, Ranji's opponent in this match described Ranji as the batting wonder of the age, while another Australian said of Ranji "he is more than a batsman - he is nothing less than a juggler". England ultimately lost the Test but Australia had to fight for victory. England won the final Test of the series at the Oval by 66 runs and claimed the rubber, Ranji failed in both the innings, scoring 8 and 11. His aggregate of 235 was the highest for the series and with an average of 78.33 Ranji topped the combined English and Australian batting averages. Soon afterwards he scored three centuries in successive innings - 165 vs Lancashire, 100 and 125 against Yorkshire, the last two made in a single day. By the end of the summer he had, too, broken WG Grace's record of 1871 by scoring 2,780 runs in a season (averaging 57.91, with 10 centuries).

Wisden selected Ranji as one of the "Five Cricketers of the year" and noted "If the word genius can be employed in connection with cricket it surely applies to the young Indian batsman". He (Ranji) has burst upon the cricketing world like a star from the East??.he has adopted cricket and turned it into an Oriential poem of action".

In 1897 though handicapped by frequent bouts of asthma, Ranji went with AE Stoddant's side to Australia where he scored 189 in his first match of the tour, and 175 in his first Test there. Batting at number seven, he was the last batsman to get out, It was the highest score that had ever been made for England in Test cricket. Ranji also achieved the unique distinction of scoring a century on his debut against Australia both in England as well as in "Down Under ". Ernest Jones, the Australian fast bowler, who was the country's highest wicket taker was a blatant thrower and Ranji accused him of 'chucking'. This annoyed the Australian public and they barracked Ranji throughout the innings when the teams met for the third Test at Adelaide, Ernest Jones' home ground. The importance of being Ernest was evident. Except for this unsavory feature, it was a triumphant tour for Ranji. He became the darling of the people and created a "Ranji fever". There were Ranjitsinghji matches, Ranjithsinghji sandwiches, Ranjitsinghji hair-restorers, bats and chairs".

In March 1898 the team returned to England, Ranji stayed back at Colombo as he had decided to spend some time in India after being away for ten years. At Patiala, he played his first club cricket in India. He made a century against the Simla Volunteers and a double century against Umballa. After spending nearly a year at Nawanagar, he went back to England in time for the next season. The close of the 19th century marked Ranji's best year in country cricket. He now possessed the power effectively to destroy even the best bowling. In 1899 when he became Captain of Sussex, he scored 3,159 runs, in 1900 3,065, including his remarkable 202 against Middlesex made in three hours on a difficult wicket. His highest score Was 285 not out, against Somerset (1901) made after having been up all night fishing. Under his captaincy Sussex tied with Kent for the third place in the county championship; only Yorkshire and Lancashire were ahead of them. He was on top of the cricket world.

Country cricket in 1902 was overshadowed by the presence of the Australian team under Joe Darling. It was a strange summer for Ranji, half a dozen superb innings alternating with an unusual number of low scores. He was picked for the first four tests and was dropped for the fifth. He never played in a Test match again, What an inglorious exit to a Test career which began with a glorious hundred!. If 1902 saw the end of Ranji as a Test cricketer, he was far from finished so far as Sussex was concerned. In 1903, Ranji scored 1924 runs including a double century (204 vs Surrey) and four centuries. Twice he was out in the nineties. He was again second in the first class batting averages. The following year (1904) he scored 2,077 runs including eight centuries and headed the English averages with 74.17. Wisden hailed his 207 not out against Lancashire at Hove, "He was at his highest pitch of excellence and beyond that the art of batting cannot go". Away from England during 1905-1907, Ranji returned to first class cricket in 1908. He was installed Maharaja Jam Saheb of Nawanagar on 10th March 1907, "the prince of a little state, but King of a great game"(AG Gardiner). All the ingenuity and resourcefulness he had displayed as a batsman went into the administration of his state. In 1908 he played 28 innings, scored 1,138 runs with an average of 45.52. After the 1908 season there followed an interval of three years. Back in England in 1912, he resumed playing cricket, good performances followed, but a strained wrist handicapped him.

1915 was a black year. WG Grace and Victor Trumper passed away and Ranji met with an unfortunate accident. Ranji took a party of friends up to Crosseliff in Yorkshire. He was hit in the right eye by his neighbour, a notoriously erratic shot. The celebrated astrologer Pandit Hareshwar's prediction of some form of mutilation for Ranji came true. For the rest of his life he wore a glass eye and carried spectacles. Undaunted, after an interval of eight years in August 1920, Ranji returned to the crease, His reappearance in three matches was warmly welcomed. He was 48, had put on weight and far from his regal self. At Hastings against Northamptonshire, he played his last Innings in first class cricket, He was out for 1.

In all Ranji played 500 innings, 62 times not out and scored 24,692 runs with an average of 56.37. He made 72 centuries of which fourteen were double centuries, often playing on "satanic wickets and against demonical bowling". The cricket of Ranji, though, is not to be measured in statistics. He was inventive, elegant, exciting to watch - as spectators of three countries testified. Knight, Cardus, Denzil Batchelor, CB Fry and AG Gardiner have witnessed and eulogized on the impact of the Indian Prince's batsmanship. Gardiner wrote, "he combined an oriental calm with oriental swiftness - the stillness of the panther with the shrewdness of its spring". He revolutionized batting technique, Before him batsman scored by forward play, Ranji demonstrated that strokes could be elegantly executed off the backfoot.

If Bosanquet is remembered as the father of the googly, Ranji will be remembered as the inventor of the leg glance. He made it a thing of beauty and this was partly due to his natural powerful eye, quickness and elasticity. It was executed nearer to the stumps - in fact, often off the middle and later, than anyone else. He had, though, all the strokes, and if at first he favoured behind the wicket on the leg side, he became a splendid cutter and a powerful and punishing driver. " But he was loved not because of his mighty scores but something which mattered a great deal more. He was loved by many friends because he was personally charming, piquantly amusing and above all, wildly generous"(AA Thomson). Popularity and success sat lightly on him and he was never given to the first person singular. He had regards and sympathy for the professional cricketers. He had a nice sense of humour and was an excellent extempore speaker. Ranji was a benevolent ruler and an outstanding statesman, particularly remembered for his work in the Chamber of Princes and in the League of Nations where he represented India with dignity and distinction. The Jubilee Book of Cricket which he authored on Queen Victoria's Diamond jubilee is a classic. His ideas on the game find eloquent expression in the book.

Till the end Ranji lived a life of single blessedness. He never married. Alan Ross casually mentions Ranji's alleged engagement to a Rajput princess in his youth. ``He liked the company of women-and indeed had a discreet and long-standing relationship with an English girl. But he showed no signs of considering marriage". Jamnagar's growth and development were his dream children. Ranji died in Jamanagar at five O' clock on the morning of 2nd April 1933. He was sixty. For five days he had struggled from lack of sleep. Asthma and bronchitis dogged him and on the night of 1 April, Ranji's heart had began to fail. It is said Ranji had returned from Delhi earlier after his farewell speech as Chancellor of the Prince's Chamber, a sad and bitter man, An unpleasant and unfortunate exchange of words with the Viceroy, Lord Willingdon, one of his greatest friends, who had presided over the meeting, left Ranji a broken man. ``His notorious belief in the goodness of humanity was torpedoed and wrecked".(Alan Ross). Wisden described him as "all that a cricketer should be - generous in defeat, modest in success and genuinely enthusiastic regarding the achievements of either colleagues or opponents".

This September marks Ranjitsinhji's 127th birth anniversary. Already Jamnagar is agog with excitement and celebrations have been planned for October. A monogram showing the immortal leg glance on one side of the coin is to be presented to 22 Ranji Trophy veterans of Nawanagar that month.

Cricketers may come and cricketers may go, but Ranji goes on forever. There never will be another Ranji. He was to quote GL Jessop, "the most brilliant, period " Here was a Ranji! When comes such another?.