In the nine first-class fixtures that he featured in, Vasant Raiji never scored a century, but he has in life. The oldest living Indian first-class cricketer, who was born on January 26, 1920, turned 100 years old on Sunday.
A resident of Walkeshwar in South Mumbai, Raiji, who was a batsman, played for Bombay and Baroda before joining his family business of chartered accountancy.
He made his first-class debut in 1939 for a Cricket Club of India (CCI) team, which played against the Central Provinces and Berar in Nagpur. Though it didn't turn out to be a memorable outing for Raiji -- he was dismissed for a duck in the first innings, followed by just one in the second innings -- that match inspired Raiji to take up the game seriously.
After all, that's where he got a chance to share the dressing room with Lala Amarnath, Vijay Merchant, CK Nayudu and Vijay Hazare.
Even though he switched to chartered accountancy later, his love for cricket never faded. He wrote books on cricketers -- Victor Trumper, CK Nayudu, LP Jai. And was also one of the founding members of the Jolly Cricket Club. Even though memory plays truant these days, Raiji still makes it a point to watch cricket on television.
A couple of weeks ago, cricketing legends Sachin Tendulkar and Steve Waugh visited Raiji to spend some time with him. They talked about cricket and celebrated Raiji's birthday by cutting a cake. "It was a fun meeting. Raiji enjoyed the evening immensely with Sachin and Steve," someone who had accompanied Waugh and Tendulkar to Raiji's home said.
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