Jamshed Khudadad (Jenni) Irani (18 August 1923 – 25 February 1982) was a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er who represented

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

as a

wicket-keeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a catch, stump the batsman out and run out a batsman when occasion arises. Th ...

Test cricket Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last fo ...

Life

Irani was born in

Karachi Karachi (; ur, ; ; ) is the most populous city in Pakistan and 12th most populous city in the world, with a population of over 20 million. It is situated at the southern tip of the country along the Arabian Sea coast. It is the former cap ...

(present-day

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

, in the

Sind Sindh (; ; ur, , ; historically romanized as Sind) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the southeastern region of the country, Sindh is the third-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the second-largest province ...

province of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

) and made his debut in

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...

in 1937 at the age of 14, playing for Sind while still in school. He played his only two Test matches against

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

in 1947/48. In the match against an Australian XI at

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, he scored 43 batting at No.11 and added 97 runs with Gogumal Kishenchand. However, he was the first Indian wicket-keeper to score a duck on debut (the only one until

Ajay Ratra Ajay Ratra (born 13 December 1981) is a former Indian cricketer. He is a right-handed batsman and wicketkeeper. He made his ODI debut on Jan 19, 2002 against England. Ratra was selected in 2000 for the first intake of the National Cricket Aca ...

in 2002) and was replaced after two matches by Khokhan Sen. Sen remained India's wicket-keeper for 5 years, and Irani never played for India again. He studied in Bai Vibhaji Sopratiwala High School, and DJ Sind College in

, and also played for

Bombay University The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai. The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed ...

. He worked for Habib Bank. He died in his home town, Karachi, by then in

References

* Obituary in '' Indian Cricket 1983''

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Irani, Jamshed (Jenni) 1923 births 1982 deaths Indian cricketers India Test cricketers Sindh cricketers North Zone cricketers Cricketers from Karachi Irani people Pakistani cricketers Pakistani Zoroastrians