Cricket history: Inside their palace compounds, they built cricket grounds to match the best in the world

Rajinder Singh, the Maharaja of Patiala. (Image via Wikimedia Commons)

The Parsees might have taken up cricket in the mid-19th century, but it was far from being a mainstream sport in India. Cricket took its time to spread outside big cities like Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras – and royal families.

There might have been Indian sporting stars before Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji, but almost no one had established themselves away from home, especially in England. Ranji’s heroics earned him plaudits from the English cricket fraternity.

Back in India, Ranji’s compatriots – including even the royalty – were denied entry to the British-only establishments. They now realized that The Great British Pastime of cricket was a means for them to rise through the social ranks, to be accepted by the British as their equal.

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Portrait of K.S. Ranjitsinghi, the cricketing Maharaja of Nawangar, hand-tinted platinum print. (Image by Vernon of Bombay via Wikimedia Commons)

While none of them obviously had Ranji’s cricketing talent, all of them had one thing in common: they were absurdly rich. They decided to own teams and challenge other kings. They even recruited the players on their payroll in non-cricketing jobs when there was no cricket. Inside their palace compounds, they built cricket grounds to match the best in the world.

Indian Maharajas cricket league

Nearly a century before the IPL, the Maharajas had a group of privately owned teams. The first significant name was Rajinder Singh, the Maharaja of Patiala.

In 1898/99, the Patiala royal led his personal team against the Calcutta Rangers. There were four English cricketers – just like IPL XIs have four overseas players – Ranji (who played for England but not India), J.T. Hearne, Bill Brockwell, and H. Priestly.

Rajinder’s son Bhupinder inherited his father’s throne and interest in cricket. In 1911, he bankrolled (and led: what was the point in owning a team if you were not captain?) the first All-India team to England.

Vizzy vs Patiala

There were other patrons too, but Patiala met his first great rival in ‘Vizzy’, the Maharajkumar of Vizianagaram. The younger son of the king, Vizzy was not the heir to the throne. He was probably not keen either. He was a great patron of cricket, which would have been appreciable… had he also not harboured the ambition of leading India.

Vizzy knew that to compete with Patiala’s legacy, he had to get the biggest names in world cricket. Whether he actually tried to get Don Bradman to play for his personal team is not clear. What is certain is that he actually got both Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe, one of the greatest opening pairs in the history of Test cricket.

Vizzy went on to recruit a galaxy of stars, from C.K. Nayudu, who would become India’s first Test captain, to Ed Kelaart, later the first to lead all-Ceylon. Then he set out to tour India and Ceylon, challenging numerous teams on his way.

It was only a matter of time before a tournament went underway. Vizzy’s team took part in the Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup Tournament under the name of Freelooters, and won the first three editions. In the fourth, in 1934/35, they lost in the final, to the Retrievers, owned by… Patiala.

Patiala had been around for a while. In 1926/27, he had funded Arthur Gilligan’s MCC (England) side on a tour of India – the first really strong squad to tour the nation.

One of MCC’s matches was against a Patiala side that had four overseas cricketers – Frank Tarrant, Arthur Dolphin, Maurice Leyland, and the legendary Wilfred Rhodes. These outstanding cricketers earned significantly more from Patiala than they used to back home.

It did not end there. On the same tour, Patiala himself played five times for the MCC. This is important, because this was an Indian playing for an English side against Indian sides when India was still under British rule… simply because he was rich.

Before all that, in 1931, the 1st Marquess of Willingdon had been appointed Viceroy of India. Willingdon had played cricket for Cambridge and Sussex, and took a keen interest in the sport.

India had played their first ever Test match, in Lord’s in 1932. Vizzy had offered to fund the tour, but Patiala had not only beaten him to it but had hosted every potential candidate in his kingdom for a month. The trial matches to select the squad were also played on Patiala’s private ground.

The Indians were led by the Maharaja of Porbandar. His brother-in-law Kumar Shri Limbdi was vice-captain. The squad included Patiala’s employee Joginder Singh.

The 1932 All-India side which toured England. Back: Lall Singh, Phiroze Palia, Jahangir Khan, Mohammad Nissar, Amar Singh, Bahadur Kapadia, Shankarrao Godambe, Ghulam Mohammad, Janardan Navle. Seated: Syed Wazir Ali, C.K.Nayudu - Maharaja of Porbandar (captain), KS Limbdi (vice-captain), Nazir Ali, Joginder Singh. Front: Naoomal Jaoomal, Sorabji Colah, Nariman Marshall. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)

Vizzy had to be kept happy too, but there was no position to offer, so he was made deputy vice-captain. He obviously opted out of the tour.

Porbandar was a terrible cricketer. On the tour, he got more Rolls Royce cars (three) than First-class runs (two). But he and Limbdi both understood their limitations, and sat out of the important fixtures, including the Test match. Nayudu led India.

Beginnings of Ranji Trophy and Willingdon Trophy

When Ranji died the next year, Patiala succeeded him as the chancellor in the Chamber of Princes. He held another advantage over the others: Yadavindra Singh, his son and the Yuvraj of Patiala, was actually good enough to make it to the Indian side on merit.

With little option, Vizzy sided with the one man powerful enough to turn the tables – Willingdon. When England toured India in 1933/34, Patiala found himself sidelined (though his son played a Test match).

To regain lost ground, Patiala donated a golden cup worth 500 pounds for an inter-state tournament. He named it after Ranjitsinhji – the Ranji Trophy.

So Vizzy came up with a ‘counter-trophy’. Not only that: he requested Lady Willingdon to design it, and named it after the Willingdon Trophy.

The inter-state tournament, meanwhile, went underway without the teams knowing which trophy they were playing for. By the time Bombay became the first ever champions, however, Patiala had won: it would be the Ranji Trophy.

Vizzy, meanwhile, organized a parallel tournament in Delhi to celebrate George V’s Silver Jubilee. His own team won this, and in a surreal turn of events, Vizzy collected the Willingdon Trophy, donated by Vizzy, from Willingdon. It ended in a stalemate.

Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi vs CK Nayudu vs Vizzy

In 1935/36, Patiala funded the first ever Australian tour of India. The four unofficial ‘Tests’ against all-India sides were to serve as trial matches for India’s 1936 tour of England.

The initial panel of selectors consisted of Kumar Shri Duleepsinhji, Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, and H.D. Kanga. However, ahead of the series, Vizzy replaced an indisposed Duleep.

Pataudi had already played Test cricket for England. He was India’s captain in this series, and was almost certain to lead India on the 1936 tour.

But he skipped the first ‘Test’ in Bombay, and the Yuvraj of Patiala led India. He was booed, because the crowd did not like him being chosen ahead of Nayudu or D.B. Deodhar. India lost.

Next, in a tour match, Vizzy made 40, and his team held the Australians to a draw. When Pataudi missed the next ‘Test’, Nayudu led, and India lost again. Both Pataudi and Nayudu missed the third ‘Test’ as well. Wazir Ali led India to a win.

Following some fuelling by Vizzy, the press jumped with their comments on why Nayudu was not the best man to lead India. Meanwhile, under Wazir, India won the fourth ‘Test’, and the series ended in a 2-2 draw.

But then, Wazir was never an initial candidate for captain. It would be Pataudi, with Nayudu and the Yuvraj with outside chances.

But Pataudi opted out of the England tour, citing poor health. Perhaps disgusted by all this, Patiala withdrew his son’s name as candidate. This left only Nayudu… until Vizzy submitted his own name. The BCCI committee voted 10-5 in Vizzy’s favour.

Captain Vizzy, Maharajkumar of Vizianagaram

His Machiavellian scheme completed, the new Indian captain, the biggest autocrat to play Test cricket for India, arrived in England with two servants, thirty-six items of luggage, and… a squad of cricketers.

There was no vice-captain. Brittain-Jones, a man close to Willingdon, was manager. Vizzy was everything… and he did whatever he wanted to. He even tried to bribe English cricketers to bowl poorly at him.

He sent Amarnath back home halfway through the tour on multiple disciplinary charges. The following year, Amarnath was cleared by the Beaumont Committee, who wrote that Vizzy “did not understand field placings or bowling changes and never maintained any regular batting order … the good players remained idle for weeks together.”

Insecure over Nayudu’s justifiable popularity, Vizzy built his own faction. He bribed them lavishly, including with a trip to Paris. Baqa Jilani insulted Nayudu at the breakfast table… and was rewarded with his only Test cap.

Vizzy was also knighted on the tour. During the ceremony, he sent an SOS cable, asking Mohammad Nissar to bowl full-tosses because Nayudu was leading the Indians to a win against Lancashire. Nayudu simply took Nissar off the attack.

On that tour, Vizzy led India in all three Test matches, and made 33 runs in six innings. He never played for India in First-class cricket, his paltry average of 18.60 (boosted by bribing the bowlers, sometimes with gold watches) was marginally better than Patiala’s 17.37.

Cricket did not stop in India in the 1940s, but there was no Test cricket in the backdrop of the Second World War, and no big trophy to eye. Besides, India was caught in a fight more important than cricket.

By the time the war ended, India was set to become an Independent nation. Indian cricket would move away from the monarchies after that.