Shatrusalyasinhji

H.H. Jamsaheb Shatrusalyasinhji Jadeja (born 20 February 1939, Jamnagar, Gujarat) is a former first-class cricketer and the last person to hold the title of Maharaja of Nawanagar.

H.H. Jamsaheb Shatrusalyasinhji Digvijaysinhji Jadeja
Born (1939-02-20) 20 February 1939
FamilyDigvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji (father)
Personal information
Full nameH. H. Jam Saheb Shatrusalyasinhji
BattingRight-handed
BowlingRight-arm off-spin
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1959–1967Saurashtra
1966Indian Starlets
Career statistics
Competition First-class
Matches 29
Runs scored 1,061
Batting average 22.57
100s/50s 1/5
Top score 164*
Balls bowled 2,674
Wickets 36
Bowling average 40.05
5 wickets in innings 0
10 wickets in match 0
Best bowling 4/104
Catches/stumpings 15/–
Source: ESPNcricinfo, 27 March 2014

Family and education

His father, H H Jam Saheb Sri Digvijaysinhji Ranjitsinhji, played one first-class match, captaining Western India against MCC in 1933-34, just after succeeding Ranjitsinhji to the title of Maharaja of Nawanagar.[1] Shatrusalyasinhji is also the nephew of Duleepsinhji.

Shatrusalyasinhji was educated at Malvern College in England, where he played for the First XI in 1957 and 1958. In 1957 he took 42 wickets at 15.11 and made 166 runs at 23.71, and in its schools report for the season Wisden (referring to him as "M.K.S. Shatrushalyasinhji") noted his "ability to bowl off-breaks at an unusually speedy pace".[2] In 1958 he was "not as effective as in the previous year", taking 22 wickets at 18.22.[3]

Cricket career

He made his first-class debut in the 1958–59 season, playing for Saurashtra against Bombay, scoring 15 not out and a duck and taking the wicket of Arvind Apte.[4] In 1959 he and his father visited England[5] and he played three matches for Sussex Second XI as an amateur, without much success.[6]

He played three matches for Saurashtra in 1959–60, four in 1961–62, and four in 1962–63, with a highest score of 65,[7] the top score of the match, in a victory over Baroda in 1961–62.[8] His highest career score came against Maharashtra in 1963–64, when batting at number three he scored 164 not out in seven and a half hours[9] out of a total of 382.[10]

In 1964, he brought his old Sussex teammates Les Lenham and Tony Buss to India; Lenham to coach him, Buss to bowl to him. Lenham said Shatrusalyasinhji "wanted to be a Ranji and a Duleep, all rolled into one, but he played too exotically".[11] His batting yielded only 113 runs in four matches in 1964–65,[7] but he did take his best bowling figures, 4 for 101 against Baroda, in a Saurashtra team that also included two other members of the Jamnagar royal family, Kumar Indrajitsinhji and Chatrapalsinhji.[12]

In 1966–67, Shatrusalyasinhji's final season of first-class cricket, he captained Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy, and Indian Starlets to the final of the Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup Tournament,[13] and was also selected for West Zone to play the touring West Indians.[14]

After cricket

He was head of the Saurashtra Cricket Association for some years until he was replaced in 1972 by Niranjan Shah, who has remained in charge since, and whose son Jaydev Shah has had a long career in the Saurashtra team.[15]

At one stage he kept around 8000 pets in his palaces. He has a 45-acre walled wildlife reserve opposite his house in Jamnagar.[16]

Personal life

He married a member of the Nepalese royal family,[17] and succeeded to the title of Maharaja Jam Saheb of Nawanagar in February 1966 on the death of his father. When the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the Constitution of India was passed in 1971, abolishing princely privy purses and entitlements, he became H H Jam Saheb Sri Shatrusalyasinhji.

References

  1. Western India v MCC 1933-34
  2. Wisden 1958, pp. 781-82.
  3. Wisden 1959, p. 751.
  4. Saurashtra v Bombay 1958-59
  5. James Astill, The Great Tamasha, Wisden Sports Writing, London, 2013, p. 31.
  6. Wisden 1960, p. 734.
  7. Shatrusalyasinhji batting by season
  8. Saurashtra v Baroda 1961-62
  9. Astill, p. 31.
  10. Maharashtra v Saurashtra 1963-64
  11. Stephen Chalke, The Way It Was, Fairfield, Bath, 2011, p. 217.
  12. Baroda v Saurashtra 1964-65
  13. Indian Starlets v State Bank of India 1966-67
  14. West Zone v West Indians 1966-67
  15. Astill, pp. 93-94.
  16. Astill, p. 29.
  17. Nawanagar (princely state) Retrieved 25 March 2014.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.