Ranji's Remington Typewriter

Ugly, gangling, pockmarked Australian fast bowlers trying to make heroes of themselves by snarling at fresh-faced debutants. Gee it must make them feel big! But it's just not cricket. No, the cricket we grew up loving was the prince of games, and it was played by princes, not ponces. Real princes. Handsome princes. Princes with Remington typewriters.

Typewriter Topics, 1909

Day-night Test matches, all over in fewer than nine sessions. Pink balls. Wickets on which 1672 runs are scored for just 28 wickets. That's not cricket either.
Give me an uncovered wicket, a small, light, flat bat, a leg glance and Colonel His Highness Shri Sir Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji II, Maharaja Jam Saheb of Nawanagar, GCSI, GBE, KCIE any day.

Old-timers take about two seconds to name their five batsmen of all time, not that they've seen them all play: Bradman, Hobbs, Trumper, Sobers and "Ranji".
"Ranji", "the lion who conquers in battle", played for England, Cambridge University and Sussex. Sir Neville Cardus described him as "the Midsummer night's dream of cricket" and wrote, "a strange light from the East flickered in the English sunshine". Unorthodox in technique and with fast reactions, he brought a new style to batting and revolutionised the game.

"Ranji" was born on September 10, 1872, in Sadodar, a village in Nawanagar in the western Indian province of Kathiawar. A year after making his Test debut for England, in August 1897 the young man published The Jubilee Book of Cricket, a critical and commercial success. During his first tour Down Under, in 1897-98. he wrote a series of articles for an Australian magazine, followed by a book, With Stoddard's Team in Australia.

"Ranji" died of heart failure on April 2, 1933, after a short illness. He was 60.