by Arunabha Sengupta and Sumit Gangopadhyay
He was the unparalleled king-maker of Indian cricket.
Raj Singh’s career numbers may show no Test match, and a not too flattering domestic record.
Indeed, he played 86 first-class matches as a medium pacer, most of them for Rajasthan and a handful for the weak Central Zone side.
However, who can forget the ‘Mian, Captain Banoge?” poser to a young Mohammad Azharuddin, a question that reverberates through the memory chambers of Indian cricket and has had lasting effect on the Indian cricketing landscape?
His six-foot three inch frame did not really set the cricket grounds on fire during his modest carerer. A haul of 206 wickets at 28.84 apiece was decent but less than top notch. He was good enough to stick around in the lower order, but his abilities with the bat did not go far enough to enable him script a half-century.
However, as administrator, he matched his height with his deeds and opinions. Not all of them were palatable, certainly not for everyone. It is also doubtful whether all the outcomes during his two reigns as selector and his two-terms as the President of BCCI were due to him, partly due to him or actually in spite of him. But no one could doubt his influence and the far reaching effects of the same.
He was also quite conspicuous on the occasions he played the role of the manager of the Indian team during overseas tours.
His grand design for the team of the 90s got off to a stuttering start with defeats in New Zealand and England, and a disastrous series in Australia. However, when we look back we see that Indian cricket did turn over a new page in the 90s.
Was it due to him? Or as we queried, in spite of him? Who knows. What we do know is that he could take plucky decisions, not always thoughtful ones, almost always hasty and gut-driven, but he used his considerable clout to go through with them.
Be it dropping Mohinder Amarnath for good, to criticising Rahul Dravid’s batting in ODIs, he spoke his mind and often imposed it on the destiny of Indian cricket. Yes, he was also the one who ensured that the Indian touring party of 1989 to Pakistan contained a certain curly haired 16-year-old called Sachin Tendulkar.
By the turn of the century, he was no longer the same force as a cricket administrator in charge of the national team. However, he remained a redoubtable figure in the vicinity, clutching on to his role as the feudal lord of CCI very nearly to his last days.
Born in the erstwhile princely state of Dungarpur, Raj Singh literally grew up with cricket. Father Lakshman Singh, the Maharawal of Dungarpur, played 8 first-class matches, 3 of them for Rajputana. Yes, a sumtotal of 130 runs at an average of 8.66 (unlike his son, the Maharawal never bowled) did not really mark him out as the King of a Great Game like some of the other royal personages to grace cricket in India. However, one can say that passion for the game ran in the family in huge dollops.
To his last day, Raj Singh remained a cricket tragic. He was afflicted with Alzheimer and passed away in 2009.
Raj Singh Dungarpur was born on December 19, 1935.