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Template:Infobox Historic Cricketer
Lt. Col. Sir Maharajkumar Dr. Vijayananda Gajapathi Raju better known as the Maharajkumar of Vizianagram or Vizzy, (28 December 1905 – 2 December 1965), was an Indian cricketer and one of the liveliest characters in Indian cricket in the late 1920s and 1930s. He used his great wealth to further his passion for cricket, bringing noted cricketers such as Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe over to India.
Vizzy was the second son of Vijayarama Gajapathi Raju, the ruler of Vizianagaram. His title Maharajkumar (prince) comes for this reason. After his father died in 1922, Vizzy moved to the family estates in Benares and married the eldest daughter of the ruler of the zamindari land of Kashipur. Some writers consider that he was merely a humble zamindar (landlord). On the contrary, he was member of a respected family of land-owners and that can be seen by the marital alliances. Vizzy, a younger son married princess of Kashipur (hereditary rulers of Kumaon and very high in list of Hindu families) who was herself, daughter of princess of Nepal and elder sister to the Queen of Kapurthala. Actually, in another cricketing connection, Vizzy would start the love story of his niece, princess of Kapurthala when he would introduce her to his colleague in gloves and pads, Duleep.
He attended the Princes' College in Ajmer and Haileybury College in England. He excelled at tennis and cricket in the Princes' College. Vizzy was a fine hunter and claimed to have bagged three hundred tigers.
Vizzy organised his cricket team in 1926 and constructed a fine ground in his palace compounds. He recruited players from India and abroad. When MCC cancelled the tour of India in 1930-31 owing to political problems, he organised a team of his own and toured India and Ceylon. He succeeded in drafting Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe for the team, a considerable feat as Hobbs has previously refused offers for five such tours. Vizzy brought Learie Constantine to India a few years later. He brought Mushtaq Ali to Benares for training when he was still a high school student. The organisation of the 1930-31 tour gave him a standing in Indian cricket that was second only to the Maharaja of Patiala. About this time, Patiala fell out with 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 Indian tour of England that happened in 1932. He was appointed as the 'deputy vice captain' for the tour but withdrew for reasons of health and form. In reality, Vizzy could not stomach playing second (in this case third!) fiddle in the touring squad. Maharaja Porbandar and Maharaja Limbdi donated more than him and Limbdi was a much better player. Chances of Vizzy making to Test side let alone county games was low. He approached 1936 tour as a military campaign with goal of getting the Indian captaincy.
In India cricket started as noble pursuit where every man was selected on his right as a sportsman without attention to caste or creed. In first ever Hindu match, they selected Palvankar balu, an untouchable spinner. Twenty years later, Palwanakar Vithal, brother to illutrious Baloo and now Hindu skipper was limiting his selections to marathis and his castemen. This is where CK Nayudu, already India's best player lead a revolt in favor of including CK Ramaswami in Hindu squad over Vithal's preference. CK was backed in this endevour by young princeling called Vizzy. So the CK, Vizzy team started. They had nothing in common, except for their mother toungue and even that they both used so sparingly that the joke went that Vizzy mistook CK 's telegu greeting at breakfast to be an insult. Ten years plus later, Vizzy who had spoken eloquently at non-favouratism in cricket selection used the bribes and promises of selections to touring side adroitly. He was going up against Maharaja Patiala who had an added quiver in his pocket. Second son Yadavendra was a great batsman. Good enough to be selected on merit and most probable captain for 1936 tour. The prince was plebian enough to allow CK to captain even though Yuvaraj was on the field. This spelled doom for Vizzy's intentions but he presevered and finally the vote was 9 to 8 in his favor and an unwieldy side of 22 players set out for England with no vice-captain and Viceroy's stooge Major Brittan as Manager and chief selector. He led the Indian tour to England in 1936, a post that he secured after lobbying and manipulation. The tour was very acrimonious, with team splits, and Vizzy even felt the need to send home one of his strongest players, Lala Amarnath. India lost the series easily, the careers of C.K. Nayudu and Wazir Ali were over, but Vizzy was knighted by King Edward VIII. He renounced his knighthood in 1947 after India became independent. MCC awarded him a membership without putting him through the customary waiting list. It was during this tour that he acquired the nickname Vizzy which was coined by Lord Hailsham, the Lord Chancellor, at a lunch given by the Royal Empire Society at Hotel Victoria.
Vizzy fared poorly in a post-tour enquiry especially in his treatment of Amarnath, and took a low profile thereafter for a few years. He started commentating for Ranji matches with AF Talyerkhan and formed a memorable commentary team. He made a comeback as a cricket administrator and was the President of BCCI from 1954-1957. After becoming the secretary of board, he restored the test career of Lala Amarnath and brought him back as India 's captain redeeming himself for the incident 17 years ago. He successfully promoted Uttar Pradesh's cricketing profile, making Kanpur a centre for Test cricket. In 1936, he was responsible for downfall of CK Nayudu. In 1953, he requested CK Nayudu to become at 57, the captain of Uttar Pradesh team which CK accepted, playing for UP till 1957. He worked for the development of cricket in South India and was asked to be President of Mysore cricket association.
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 and Cashman writes that there was a joke among cricketers that Vizzy's success at hunting occurred because he used to play his commentary in the jungle which caused the animals to fall asleep or drop dead. Cashman 's comment is typical of Britisher of that age who felt insulted by a person of darker skin being respected by Britishers. I would personaly disagree with this statement, among Indians of that age and genre and his colleagues, Vizzy was a memorable commentator even more than Talyer Khan.
Vizzy was the member of the Lok Sabha from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh in 1960 and 1962. He died aged 59 in Benares (now Varanasi), where he also was born.
| Preceded byCK Nayudu | Indian national cricket captain 1936 |
Succeeded byNawab of Pataudi, snr |
References
- Maharajkumar of Vizianagram at ESPNcricinfo
- Richard Cashman, Patrons, players and the crowd, Orient Longman (1980), p.42, ISBN 0861312120
- ibid, p.40
- ibid, p.33
- ibid, p.42-43
- Mihir Bose, A History of Indian Cricket, Andre Deutsch Ltd (1990), p.101, ISBN 0233985638
- Vizzy's genealogy from Indian Princely States
- Boria Majumdar, Twenty two yards to freedom, Penguin (2004), ISBN 0670057940. Majumdar quotes Vizzy's statement in p.43
- Members of Parliament from Andhra Pradesh in 1962
- Results of the by-elections to the Indian states and parliament
Further reading
- The chapter Vizzy in Mihir Bose's History of Indian Cricket contains a fascinating account of Vizzy's efforts to become the captain of the 1936 touring team.