By Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (April 21^st 2025)

A Remarkable Career

Prince Kumar (KS) Ranjitsinhji scored over 1000 runs in county cricket every season for a decade consecutively from 1895. He also amassed over 1000 runs in the 1908 and 1912 seasons. Ranjitsinhji scored over a thousand runs in all twelve complete seasons that he played in English cricket since 1895 – an incredible achievement – and in 1899 and 1900 Ranjitsinhji scored over 3000 runs in the English season, which is an impressive feat by any standards.

In 1897-98 Ranjitsinhji scored 1157 runs at an average of 60.89 in the Australian season. Sadly, it was the only time that the Sussex great toured Australia. He played just 15 Test Matches, a surprisingly small number for such a dominant batsman over the decade since he announced his arrival at the summit of English cricket in 1895. However, perusal of his first seven Test Matches compared to the final eight provides an explanation – his form had deteriorated badly.

Early Test Matches

Ranjitsinhji became the first ‘foreigner’ to play Test Match cricket for England. It became the best début by a batsman for England since Test Match cricket began with Australia’s Charles Bannerman hitting an unbeaten 165 at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on the Ides of March 1877. Tom Kendall’s 7 for 55 from 31 overs and 1 ball in the second innings was the best bowling figures in an innings.

Australia won the inaugural Test Match by 45 runs. England won the Second Test, also in Melbourne by 4 wickets. Two years later England toured Australia – they played only one Test Match, again at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Australia won easily by 10 wickets. Charles Bannerman remained the only centurion in the first three Test Matches – those were the only Test Matches that Bannerman played. He would emerge as an umpire in later series.

Frederick Spofforth took 6 for 48 from his 25 overs in England’s first innings. Yorkshire’s Thomas Emmett responded with 7 for 68 from 59 overs. Spofforth took 7 for 62 from 35 overs – he also took a catch to give Harry Boyle his only wicket in England’s second innings. Spofforth’s 13 for 110 from 94 overs was comfortably the best match figures in all Test Matches at that time.

The Era of Grace

In 1880 Australia toured England – there was only one Test Match at the Oval, which England won by 5 wickets. Gloucestershire’s Dr William (WG) Grace scored 152 on his début. Australia’s captain, Billy Murdoch, later to play for South Africa, made a duck in the first innings and bettered Grace’s century by one run in the second innings. It was the first Test Match to feature two centuries – any since Charles Bannerman’s. It took 35 Test Matches for another century to be hit on début – Harry Graham scored 107 for Australia.

The next century on début was hit in the 51^st Test Match by Ranjitsinhji in Manchester in the Second Test Match in 1896 – on July 16^th. Despite Ranjitsinhji’s unbeaten 154 in the second innings – he hit a half-century in the first innings, 62 – Australia won by 3 wickets to square the series, having lost by 6 wickets in the First Test Match at Lord’s, despite second innings centuries for the visitors by Australia’s skipper, Harry Trott, 143 and Syd Gregory, 103. Frank Iredale scored 108 in Australia’s first innings in Manchester.

By then (1889) South Africa had become the third Test Match playing nation. England won a low-scoring Third Test Match at the Oval by 66 runs to win the series 2-1 – Ranjitsinhji made no significant contribution in his second Test Match.

A New Era

England won the First Test Match on the 1897-98 tour of Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground by 9 wickets. Ranjitsinhji scored his second and last Test match century in this match – his highest score of 175 in the first innings. It was the first Test Match captained by Archibald MacLaren who was deputising for regular captain Andrew Stoddart who was bereaved due to the death of his mother.

MacLaren scored a century in the first innings, 109 and 50 not out in the second innings – Ranjitsinhji was unbeaten on 9 in the second innings. This match also featured the first century in Test cricket by a left-handed batsman scored by future Australian captain, Joe Darling, 101 in the second innings. Another left-handed batsman, the gifted Clem Hill was dismissed by Jack Hearne for 96 in that innings.

Australia won the Second Test at Melbourne by an innings and 55 runs – Ranjitsinhji made a half-century in the first innings, top-scoring with 71, but he couldn’t help England to avoid the follow on and a bad defeat. Stoddart resumed the captaincy of England for the Third Test Match in Adelaide, which Australia won by an innings and 13 runs, led by another century by Darling, 178 out of 573 all out. MacLaren’s second innings century, 124, and Ranjitsinhji’s 77 were not enough to avoid defeat. Melbourne hosted the Fourth Test Match – Australia won by 8 wickets. Hill made 188 out of 323 all out in Australia’s first innings – Jack Hearne took 6 for 98 from 35 overs and 4 balls. Again, a second innings Ranjitsinhji half-century, 55, made no difference to the result.

Australia won the Fifth and final Test Match of the series in Sydney by 6 wickets. Ranjitsinhji made no significant contributions in this match, but Darling hit his third century of the series, 160. Australia won the series 4-1.

The umpires for all five Test Matches in this series were Charles Bannerman and Jim Phillips – the latter was determined to oust chucking from the game. Phillips courageously called Australia’s Ernest Jones twice for chucking in the Second Test Match of the series – the first man to be no-balled for throwing in Test Match cricket. Jones did not bowl in England’s second innings in that match. Nevertheless, Jones’ Test Match career did not end until October 1902.

The Deterioration of the Prince

Ranjitsinhji’s first seven Test Matches – just under half his international career – had yielded 692 runs. He did not score an aggregate of 300 in his final eight Test Matches – 297 to be precise – which was a woeful return for a batsman of his class.

He played his last three matches for Sussex in 1920 by which time his abilities and health had deteriorated considerably. The Prince Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji, the Nawab of Nawanagar, died on April 2^nd 1933, aged 60.