HIS play is as sunny as his face. He is not a miser hoarding up runs, but a millionaire spending them, with a splendid yet judicious prodigality.* It is as if his pockets are bursting with runs that he wants to shower with his blessings upon the expectant multitude. It is not difficult to believe that in his little kingdom of Nawanagar he is extremely popular, for it is obvious that his pleasure is in giving pleasure.
He is as engaging with his tongue as with his bat, a lively raconteur, and a man of thoroughly democratic sympathies and serious purposes.* It was he who first set himself to break down the practice of professionals and amateurs lunching separately, providing thus a curious commentary on our vague conceptions about caste.*
He goes back to his own people, to the little State that he recovered so romantically,* and governs as a good Liberal should govern,* and the holiday crowds will see him no more. But his name will live in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of British people, to whom he has given happy days and happy memories.
* Ranji played for Sussex CCC and for the England Test side. Over his career, Ranji played 307 first class matches, amassing 24,692 runs at an average of 56.37, and hitting 72 centuries with a top score of 285 not out. He scored 989 runs in 15 Tests at an average of 44.95, including two centuries and a top score of 175. Ranji took 233 catches in the field, and was also a decent finger-spinner, taking 133 wickets at 34.59 and taking four 5-wicket hauls with a best of 6 for 53. No player based mainly in England would surpass Ranji’s career batting average until 1986, when Geoffrey Boycott retired. Surely his most extraordinary achievement — and one which remains unique to this day — was to score two centuries on the same day, batting at Hove on August 22nd, 1896, in a match against Yorkshire. See espncricinfo for the scorecard.
* “I conscientiously believe in hereditary kingship from the beginning” Ranjitsinhji declared at the founding of his new Advisory Council in 1919; “that principle has been running in our blood for untold generations, and I have firm faith in the creed. ... But what is really essential is this: we must know the needs of the people, and in all measures that we adopt for their protection and betterment, we should secure their concurrence and goodwill.”
* He took the same principles into his government of Nawanagar, overcoming prejudices and discrimination while fostering long-standing traditions. See A Page Out of Pageantry.
* Ranji’s grandfather was cousin to the Jam Sahib of Nawanagar, Vibhaji. In 1878, Vibhaji began measures to adopt Ranji as his heir. Six years later, however, Vibhaji unexpectedly named Jaswantsinhji, a boy born to one of the women of his court, in his stead. The British administrators respected his decision, though clearly there were questions to answer, and when Vibhaji died in 1895 the twelve-year-old Jashwantsinhji succeeded him, taking full control in 1903. However, Jashwantsinhji died only four years later, following a brief illness, and this time London moved quickly to install Ranji.
* By the time Ranji died in 1933, the state had made remarkable economic and social progress. That was thanks chiefly to his administrator and lifelong friend Colonel H. W. Berthon, who worked his position as both the Jam Sahib’s man inside the Raj and London’s man inside Nawanagar with considerable skill.
