Maharajkumar of Vizianagram
Encyclopedia
Lieutenant Colonel
Sir Vijayananda Gajapathi Raju (28 December 1905 – 2 December 1965), better known as the Maharajkumar of Vizianagram or Vizzy, was an Indian cricket
er, cricket administrator and politician.
, the ruler of Vizianagaram
. His title Maharajkumar (prince) comes for this reason. After his father died in 1922 and his elder brother became the king, Vizzy moved to the family estates in Benares. He married the eldest daughter of the ruler of the zamindari estate of Kashipur.
He attended the Princes' College
in Ajmer
and Haileybury and Imperial Service College
in England. He excelled at tennis
and cricket and was also a hunter who claimed to have bagged over three hundred tigers.
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 had 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. "If Vizzy had been content with being such a cricket sponsor", writes Mihir Bose
in A History of Indian Cricket, "like 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 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 ostensibly on reasons of health and form.
for the 1936 tour of England
, 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 criticized the captain.
The low point in the tour occurred during India's match against Minor Counties at Lord's. Lala Amarnath
had been nursing a back injury during the game. Vizzy had Amarnath pad up, but didn't put him in to bat as a succession of other batsmen were sent in ahead of him, which prevented Amarnath from resting his injury. Amarnath was finally put in to bat at the end of the day. Visibly angry after returning to the dressing room, he threw his kit into his bag and muttered in Punjabi, "I know what is transpiring". Vizzy took this as an affront, and conspired with team manager Major Jack Brittain-Jones to have Lala Amarnath sent back from the tour without playing the first test match. It is also alleged that in the 1st Test against the England, Vizzy offered Mushtaq Ali
a gold watch to run out Vijay Merchant
.
While India lost the series easily, Vizzy was knight
ed by King Edward VIII
in the King's Birthday Honours. He was the only cricketer to have a knighthood
bestowed on him while an active Test cricketer, shortly after his test debut in June of that year, and prior to his last test in August of that year. Vizzy 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 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.
Vizzy never played another cricket match for India again.
from 1954-1957. 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. 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.
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, 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.
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).
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
Sir Vijayananda Gajapathi Raju (28 December 1905 – 2 December 1965), better known as the Maharajkumar of Vizianagram or Vizzy, was an Indian cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
er, cricket administrator and politician.
Childhood
Vizzy was the second son of Pusapati Vijayarama Gajapathi RajuMaharaja of Vizianagram
The Maharaja of Vizianagram was the title held by the rulers of the princely state of Vizianagram, now in Andhra Pradesh, India.The prominent people who have held this title include :*Pusapati Amala Raju *Pusapati Rachi Raju...
, the ruler of Vizianagaram
Vizianagaram
Vizianagaram is the main city of the Vizianagaram District of north-eastern Andhra Pradesh in southern India. Vizianagaram district was formed on 1 June 1979, with some parts carved from the neighbouring districts of Srikakulam and Visakhapatnam. It is, at present, the largest municipality of...
. His title Maharajkumar (prince) comes for this reason. After his father died in 1922 and his elder brother became the king, Vizzy moved to the family estates in Benares. He married the eldest daughter of the ruler of the zamindari estate of Kashipur.
He attended the Princes' College
Mayo College
Mayo College is a public school founded by the 6th Earl of Mayo, who was Viceroy of India from 1869 to 1872.The school is located in Ajmer, in the state of Rajasthan, India....
in Ajmer
Ajmer
Ajmer , formerly written as Ajmere, is a city in Ajmer District in Rajasthan state in India. Ajmer has a population of around 800,000 , and is located west of the Rajasthan state capital Jaipur, 200 km from Jodhpur, 274 km from Udaipur, 439 km from Jaisalmer, and 391 km from...
and Haileybury and Imperial Service College
Haileybury and Imperial Service College
Haileybury and Imperial Service College, , is a prestigious British independent school founded in 1862. The school is located at Hertford Heath, near Hertford, from central London, on of parkland occupied until 1858 by the East India College...
in England. He excelled at tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
and cricket and was also a hunter who claimed to have bagged over three hundred tigers.
Career
Vizzy organised his cricket team in 1926 and constructed a ground in his palace compounds. He recruited players from India and abroad. When MCCMarylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...
cancelled the tour of India in 1930-31 owing to political problems, he organised a team of his own and toured India and Ceylon
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
. He succeeded in drafting Jack Hobbs
Jack Hobbs
Sir John Berry "Jack" Hobbs was an English professional cricketer who played for Surrey from 1905 to 1934 and for England in 61 Test matches from 1908 to 1930....
and Herbert Sutcliffe
Herbert Sutcliffe
Herbert Sutcliffe was an English professional cricketer who represented Yorkshire and England as an opening batsman. Apart from one match in 1945, his first-class career spanned the period between the two World Wars...
for the team, a considerable feat as Hobbs had previously refused offers for five such tours. Vizzy brought Learie Constantine
Learie Constantine
Learie Nicholas Constantine, Baron Constantine MBE was a West Indian cricketer who played 18 Test matches before the Second World War. He took West Indies' first wicket in Test cricket and was the team's leading all-rounder and opening bowler for the entirety of his career...
to India a few years later. He brought Mushtaq Ali
Mushtaq Ali
Syed Mushtaq Ali was a former Indian cricketer, and an aggressive Test batsman. Ali holds the distinction of scoring the first Test century by any Indian overseas, when he hit a ton for the team in 1936 at Manchester in England.A Wisden Special Award winner, he scored four first class hundreds in...
to Benares for training when he was still a high school student. "If Vizzy had been content with being such a cricket sponsor", writes Mihir Bose
Mihir Bose
Mihir Bose also referred to as Spermy ,is a British Indian sportswriter and journalist, who was the BBC's sports editor until 4 August 2009.-Early life:...
in A History of Indian Cricket, "like Sir Horatio Mann
Sir Horatio Mann
Sir Horatio Mann, 2nd Baronet was an English MP. He is remembered as a member of the Hambledon Club in Hampshire and a patron of Kent cricket. He was an occasional player but rarely in first-class matches....
in the eighteenth century, or Sir Julien Cahn
Julien Cahn
Sir Julien Cahn, 1st Baronet was an entrepreneur, philanthropist and supporter of cricket.-His cricket XI:...
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 Maharaja of Patiala
Maharaja Bhupinder Singh
Maharaja Bhupinder Singh, GCSI, GCIE, GCVO, GBE was the ruling Maharaja of the princely state of Patiala from 1900 to 1938.- Biography :...
. About this time, Patiala fell out with Lord Willingdon, the viceroy
Viceroy
A viceroy is a royal official who runs a country, colony, or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. A viceroy's province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty...
of India, and Vizzy got close with the viceroy. He donated a pavilion named after the viceroy in the newly constructed Feroz Shah Kotla
Feroz Shah Kotla
The Feroz Shah Kotla or Kotla was originally a fortress built by Sultan Ferozshah Tughlaq to house his version of Delhi city called Ferozabad. A pristine polished sandstone pillar from the 3rd century B.C...
ground in Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
. 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
Ranji Trophy
The Ranji Trophy is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between different city and state sides, equivalent to the County Championship in England and the Sheffield Shield in Australia...
.
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 ostensibly on reasons of health and form.
Captaincy
Vizzy finally was named the captain for Indian cricket teamIndian cricket team
The Indian cricket team is the national cricket team of India. Governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India , it is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test and One Day International status....
for the 1936 tour of England
English cricket team
The England and Wales cricket team is a cricket team which represents England and Wales. Until 1992 it also represented Scotland. Since 1 January 1997 it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board , having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club from 1903 until the end...
, 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
Lala Amarnath
Nanik Amarnath Bhardwaj was an Indian Test cricketer. He was the first cricketer to score a Test century for the Indian cricket team, which he achieved on debut...
, C. K. Nayudu
C. K. Nayudu
Cottari Kanakaiya Nayudu , also known as CK, was an Indian cricketer who served as India's first Test captain. He was born in Nagpur, Maharashtra and died in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. He played first-class cricket regularly till 1958, and returned for one last time in 1963 at the age of 68...
and Vijay Merchant
Vijay Merchant
Vijaysingh Madhavji Merchant , real name Vijay Madhavji Thakersey was an Indian cricketer. A right-hand batter and occasional right-arm medium pace bowler, Merchant played first class cricket for Mumbai cricket team as well as 10 Test matches for India between 1929 and 1951...
, were critical of Vizzy's playing abilities and captaincy, and the team was split between those who supported and criticized the captain.
The low point in the tour occurred during India's match against Minor Counties at Lord's. Lala Amarnath
Lala Amarnath
Nanik Amarnath Bhardwaj was an Indian Test cricketer. He was the first cricketer to score a Test century for the Indian cricket team, which he achieved on debut...
had been nursing a back injury during the game. Vizzy had Amarnath pad up, but didn't put him in to bat as a succession of other batsmen were sent in ahead of him, which prevented Amarnath from resting his injury. Amarnath was finally put in to bat at the end of the day. Visibly angry after returning to the dressing room, he threw his kit into his bag and muttered in Punjabi, "I know what is transpiring". Vizzy took this as an affront, and conspired with team manager Major Jack Brittain-Jones to have Lala Amarnath sent back from the tour without playing the first test match. It is also alleged that in the 1st Test against the England, Vizzy offered Mushtaq Ali
Mushtaq Ali
Syed Mushtaq Ali was a former Indian cricketer, and an aggressive Test batsman. Ali holds the distinction of scoring the first Test century by any Indian overseas, when he hit a ton for the team in 1936 at Manchester in England.A Wisden Special Award winner, he scored four first class hundreds in...
a gold watch to run out Vijay Merchant
Vijay Merchant
Vijaysingh Madhavji Merchant , real name Vijay Madhavji Thakersey was an Indian cricketer. A right-hand batter and occasional right-arm medium pace bowler, Merchant played first class cricket for Mumbai cricket team as well as 10 Test matches for India between 1929 and 1951...
.
While India lost the series easily, Vizzy was knight
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
ed by King Edward VIII
Edward VIII of the United Kingdom
Edward VIII was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth, and Emperor of India, from 20 January to 11 December 1936.Before his accession to the throne, Edward was Prince of Wales and Duke of Cornwall and Rothesay...
in the King's Birthday Honours. He was the only cricketer to have a knighthood
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
bestowed on him while an active Test cricketer, shortly after his test debut in June of that year, and prior to his last test in August of that year. Vizzy 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
Douglas Hogg, 1st Viscount Hailsham
Douglas McGarel Hogg, 1st Viscount Hailsham PC was a British lawyer and Conservative politician.-Background:...
, the Lord Chancellor
Lord Chancellor
The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor, is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State, ranking only after the Lord High Steward. The Lord Chancellor is appointed by the Sovereign...
, at a lunch given by the Royal Empire Society at Hotel Victoria.
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.
Vizzy never played another cricket match for India again.
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 BCCIBoard of Control for Cricket in India
The Board of Control for Cricket in India , headquartered at Mumbai, is the national governing body for all cricket in India. It's not the apex governing body in India. The board was formed in December 1928 as BCCI replaced Calcutta Cricket Club. BCCI is a society, registered under the Tamil Nadu...
from 1954-1957. 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
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
's cricketing profile, making Kanpur a centre for Test cricket. 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.
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, when Vizzy had just finished describing how he had hunted tigers, Rohan Kanhai
Rohan Kanhai
Rohan Bholalall Kanhai is a former West Indian Cricket player of Indo-Guyanese descent. He is widely considered as one of the best batsmen of the 1960s. Kanhai featured in several great West Indian teams, playing with, among others, Sir Garfield Sobers, Roy Fredericks, Lance Gibbs, and Alvin...
responded: Really? I thought you just left a transistor radio on when you were commentating and bored them to death.
Vizzy was the member of the Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
from Visakhapatnam
Visakhapatnam
Visakhapatnam is a major sea port on the south east coast of India. With a population of approximately 1.7 million, it is the second largest city in the state of Andhra Pradesh and the third largest city on the east coast of India after Kolkata and Chennai. According to the history, the city was...
in Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...
in 1960 and 1962. He died aged 59 in Benares (now Varanasi).