Meet 100-year-old Vasant Raiji: India's oldest living first-class cricketer
Vasant Raiji, who made his first-class debut in 1939, turned 100 years old on Sunday.
Published : Jan 26, 2020 11:51 IST
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.
Vasant Raiji Born: January 26, 1920 First-Class matches: 9 Teams: Bombay/Baroda Runs: 277 Highest score: 68 Average: 23.08 |
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.