Catalogue for the auction of
Cricket, Football & Sporting Memorabilia

To be held on Friday, Saturday & Sunday
31st October, 1st & 2nd November 2025

Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji. Cambridge University, Sussex & England. 1890-1920. A cricket bat thought to have been used by Ranjitsinhji in his record breaking season of 1896. There is an old museum/collection label to back which suggests this and it was purchased by the late vendor as being from the Charles Pratt Green Collection which was acquired by Sir Julian Cahn in 1931 and is listed in ‘Historic Bats’, Biographical catalogue of the unique collection of 149 bats formed by Mr Charles Pratt Green of Malvern by J.N. Pentelow in London 1931. Item 93 is listed as ‘H.H. the Jam Sahib of Nawanagar. The illustrious Ranji used this in 1896, when he first played for England’. Old binding to the bat in four places, wear and small damage to the toe, lacking its handle rubber otherwise in good condition. It is not possible to identify the make of the bat due to the biding applied to the top of the blade but a part word still visible suggests a Shaw & Shrewsbury’ cricket bat
In Ranji’s record breaking season of 1896 he scored 2780 runs, he played in his first Test match for England against Australia in the 2nd Test played at Old Trafford in July 1896 and scored 62 and 154 in the match. Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji was the ruler of the Indian princely state of Nawanagar from 1907 to 1933, as Maharaja Jam Saheb and a noted Test cricketer who played County cricket for Sussex and Test cricket for England. He is widely known as the ‘Father of Indian Cricket’, as he was one of the earliest top-class Indian cricketers to play the sport. Ranji has widely been regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of his era. Unorthodox in technique and with fast reactions, he brought a new style to batting and revolutionised the game. Previously, batsmen had generally pushed forward; Ranji took advantage of the improving quality of pitches in his era and played more on the back foot, both in defence and attack. He is particularly associated with one shot, the leg glance, which he invented or popularised. The first-class cricket tournament in India, the Ranji Trophy, was named in his honour.

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