FATHER OF INDIAN CRICKET
Ranjitsinghji or Ranji was ruler of the princely state of Nawanagar in Kathiawar and an accomplished cricketer.
He began his his cricketing career in England where he had gone to study and played 15 Tests for that country between 1896 and 1902. All his matches were against Australia.
A writer described him as "...a prince of little state but a king of a great game". He made a century on debut (154 not out) at Old Trafford in 1896, and dominated the English cricket scene till the end of the century . In 1897, when he played in Australia for the first time, he scored 175 in the first Time, the highest-ever score made for England in Test cricket. In 1899 he became the first batsman in the world to score 3000 runs in a season, a feat that he repeated in 1900.
He was a master of the leg glance , stroke that he created.
He never played for India, which was given Test status only in 1932 . By then, he was too old to play. He died in April 1933.
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