AsifTheManRahman
August 26, 2009, 11:45 AM
A masterpiece on the inventor of the leg glance, the first colored English player and the guy India's main domestic competition is named after. It's interesting how leg-side shots were considered "ungentlemanly" back in the days.
A prince among batsmen
Over a century ago, the English game was transformed by an Indian who went on to become the most popular cricketer in the Empire
Gideon Haigh (http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/418303.html#)
August 24, 2009
Perhaps no cricketer in history has been as romanticised and sentimentalised as Ranjitsinhji (http://www.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/19331.html). It testifies to his uniqueness that this romance and sentimentality do not significantly enlarge on reality. WG Grace prophesied that there would not be a batsman like Ranji for a hundred years. This is inherently untestable, but it did set a remarkably high standard.
Ranji was not only the first well-known Indian cricketer, but "the first Indian of any kind to become universally known and popular" - as John Lord puts it in The Maharajahs. And this through a concatenation of circumstances that has inspired not only four biographies but two novels: Ian Buruma's Playing the Game and John Masters' The Ravi Lancers.
More (http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/418303.html)
A prince among batsmen
Over a century ago, the English game was transformed by an Indian who went on to become the most popular cricketer in the Empire
Gideon Haigh (http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/418303.html#)
August 24, 2009
Perhaps no cricketer in history has been as romanticised and sentimentalised as Ranjitsinhji (http://www.cricinfo.com/england/content/player/19331.html). It testifies to his uniqueness that this romance and sentimentality do not significantly enlarge on reality. WG Grace prophesied that there would not be a batsman like Ranji for a hundred years. This is inherently untestable, but it did set a remarkably high standard.
Ranji was not only the first well-known Indian cricketer, but "the first Indian of any kind to become universally known and popular" - as John Lord puts it in The Maharajahs. And this through a concatenation of circumstances that has inspired not only four biographies but two novels: Ian Buruma's Playing the Game and John Masters' The Ravi Lancers.
More (http://www.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/story/418303.html)