Maharajkumar of Vizianagram

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"Vizzy" redirects here. For Vizzy Hard Seltzer, see Molson Coors.

Maharajkumar of Vizianagaram
British India[N 1]
Died2 December 1965(1965-12-02) (aged 59)
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India
NicknameVizzy
BattingRight-handed
International information
National side
Test debut (cap 23)27 June 1936 v England
Last Test18 August 1936 v England
Domestic team information
YearsTeam
1934–1935United Provinces
Career statistics
Competition Test First-class
Matches 3 47
Runs scored 33 1,228
Batting average 8.25 18.60
100s/50s 0/0 0/5
Top score 19* 77
Balls bowled 0 168
Wickets – 4
Bowling average – 34.75
5 wickets in innings – 0
10 wickets in match – 0
Best bowling – 1/1
Catches/stumpings 1/– 18/–
Source: ESPNcricinfo, 21 February 2021

Lt. Col. Pusapati Vijaya Ananda Gajapathi Raju (28 December 1905 – 2 December 1965), better known as the Maharajkumar of Vizianagram or Vizzy, was an Indian cricketer, cricket administrator and politician.[3][4]

Childhood

Vizzy was the second son of

zamindari estate of Kashipur.[5]

He attended the Mayo College in Ajmer and Haileybury and Imperial Service College in England. He excelled at tennis and cricket and was also a hunter.[citation needed]

Career

Vizzy organized his cricket team in 1926 and constructed a ground in his palace compounds. He recruited players from India and abroad. When

Sir Horatio Mann in the eighteenth century, or Sir Julien Cahn
in the twentieth, his name would be one of the most revered in Indian cricket. But he was consumed with the ambition to be a great cricketer".

The organisation of the 1930–31 tour gave Vizzy a standing in Indian cricket that was second only to the

Lord Willingdon, the viceroy of India, and Vizzy got close with the viceroy. He donated a pavilion named after the viceroy in the newly constructed Feroz Shah Kotla ground in Delhi. When the national championship was started in 1934, he attempted to donate a gold 'Willingdon trophy' but Patiala beat him to it with his Ranji Trophy
.

His wealth and contacts brought him great influence in Indian cricket, even though his cricketing abilities were not great. In the early thirties, he offered to pay the board fifty thousand rupees, forty thousand of it for the Indian tour of England in 1932. He was appointed as the 'deputy vice captain' for the tour but withdrew ostensibly on reasons of health and form.[8]

Captaincy

Vizzy finally was named the captain of the team that toured England in 1936, a post that he secured after lobbying and manipulation. Unfortunately, his desperately poor captaincy on the field resulted in even the normally reserved British press commenting on it. Some of the senior players in the squad, including Lala Amarnath, C. K. Nayudu and Vijay Merchant, were critical of Vizzy's playing abilities and captaincy, and the team was split between those who supported and those who criticised the captain.[citation needed]

The low point in the tour occurred during India's match against Minor Counties at

Mushtaq Ali a gold watch to run out Vijay Merchant.[9]

While India lost the series easily, Vizzy was

Lord Mountbatten that the knighthood "will not be in keeping with the ideals of Republic of India".[13]
MCC awarded him a membership without putting him through the customary waiting list.

Vizzy fared poorly in the post-tour enquiry especially in his treatment of Amarnath. In January 1937, the Beaumont Committee report described his captaincy as disastrous. It stated that "he did not understand field placings or bowling changes and never maintained any regular batting order." On team selection, the report stated that "the good players remained idle for weeks together." The report found Amarnath not guilty of any of the charges alleged by Vizzy and Major Jones, and completely exonerated him.[9]

Vizzy never played another cricket match for India again.[why?]

Second career

Vizzy maintained a low profile thereafter for almost two decades. He made a comeback as a cricket administrator and was the President of BCCI from 1954 to 1957. As the vice-president of the BCCI in 1952, he had played a role in bringing back Lala Amarnath as the Indian captain. He successfully promoted Uttar Pradesh's cricketing profile, making Kanpur a centre for Test cricket.[1] On his invitation, C. K. Nayudu, at the age of 61, captained Uttar Pradesh in the 1956–57 season. He worked for the development of cricket in South India and was asked to be President of Mysore cricket association. He was the Vice Chairman of the All India Council of Sports.[citation needed]

From the 1948–49 series against West Indies, Vizzy became a radio commentator and was the guest commentator for

BBC during the Indian tour of England in 1959. He was not a particularly good commentator. According to Dickie Rutnagur,[14] when Vizzy had just finished describing how he had hunted tigers, Rohan Kanhai responded: Really? I thought you just left a transistor radio on when you were commentating and bored them to death.[9]

He was awarded Padma Bhushan, in 1958[15]

Vizzy was the

Benares (now Varanasi), considered holy by Hindus.[citation needed
]

Legacy

  • Vizzy Trophy, an inter-zonal university cricket tournament is named after him.[19]

Notes

  1. ^ References disagree about Vizzy's place of birth. Wisden, ESPNcricinfo[1] and similar sources put it at Benares. According to some Indian sources,[2] he was born in Vizianagaram.

References

  1. ^ a b Maharajkumar of Vizianagram at ESPNcricinfo
  2. ^ Sources which provide Vizzy's place of birth as Vizianagram include Mihir Bose's A History of Indian Cricket (p. 547 of the 1990 edition) and the almanacs brought out by the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Scorers of India (ACSSI) (p. 461 of the 1990–91 edition, for instance).
  3. ^ "Maharajkumar of Vizianagram". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 12 May 2020.
  4. ^ "Royalty on the cricket field". International Cricket Council. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  5. ^ Vizzy's genealogy from Indian Princely States
  6. ISBN 0-233-98563-8
  7. ISBN 0-86131-212-0
    , pp. 42–43
  8. ISBN 0-670-05794-0
    , p. 43, quotes Vizzy's statement.
  9. ^ a b c d "A right royal Indian mess".
  10. ^ "No. 34307". The London Gazette. 21 July 1936. pp. 4669–4670.
  11. ^ "No. 34296". The London Gazette (Supplement). 19 June 1936. pp. 3996–3997.
  12. Sir Richard Hadlee
    's knighthood, though announced on 15 June 1990, was bestowed on him on 4 October 1990, after his final Test match on 10 July 1990.
  13. ^ "Knighthood renounced by well-known Indian cricketer". Western Morning News. 15 July 1947. Retrieved 13 November 2014 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  14. The Telegraph. Gentlemen & their game
    . 27 March 2006.
  15. ^ "Members Bioprofile". 164.100.47.132. Archived from the original on 27 May 2014.
  16. ^ Members of Parliament from Andhra Pradesh in 1962
  17. ^ Results of the by-elections to the Indian states and parliament
  18. ^ Indian Express, 26 January 1958
  19. ^ "BCCI keen on restoration of Vizzy Trophy". ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 26 September 2023.

External links

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