Vasant Baburao Ranjane (22 July 1937 – 22 December 2011) was an Indian

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 played in seven

Test matches Test match in some sports refers to a sporting contest between national representative teams and may refer to: * Test cricket * Test match (indoor cricket) * Test match (rugby union) * Test match (rugby league) * Test match (association football) ...

between 1958 and 1964. Vasant Ranjane was a 'slightly built, unlikely looking figure for an opening bowler' who relied more on line and length than speed for his wickets,Sujit Mukherjee, ''Playing for India'', Orient Longman (1988) but could 'swing both ways and cut the ball off the seam'. As a young boy, Ranjane used to frequent the grounds of the Shivaji Preparatory School grounds in

Poona Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

where

Madhusudan Rege Madhusudan Ramachandra Rege (18 March 1924 – 16 December 2013) was an Indian cricketer who played in one Test match in 1949 against West Indies. He played for Maharashtra from 1944–45 to 1954–55, captaining the team from 1951–52 to 19 ...

used to coach. He put this to practice at the Sangam Wadi Union Club, from where he was picked by the talent scouts of the Vilas Club. This paved the way for playing in the first division and first class cricket.G. Viswanath, ''The Forgotten Figure'', Sportstar, 29 September 1984 Ranjane had a fabulous start to his first class career when he took nine wickets for 35 in an innings on his debut (13 for 71 in the match) including a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

for

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

against Saurashtra in 1956–57. The role was reversed when he played his first Test two years later against

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greater A ...

at Green Park, Kanpur, when his only wicket was the one missed by

Subhash Gupte Subhashchandra Pandharinath "Fergie" Gupte (Marathi: सुभाष गुप्ते) (; 11 December 1929 – 31 May 2002) was one of Test cricket's finest spin bowlers. Sir Garry Sobers, EAS Prasanna and Jim Laker pronounced him the best ...

who took 9 for 102. He was hit on the thigh by a full toss from

Wes Hall Sir Wesley Winfield Hall (born 12 September 1937) is a Barbadian former cricketer and politician. A tall, strong and powerfully built man, Hall was a genuine fast bowler and despite his very long run up, he was renowned for his ability to bow ...

while batting and was unable to bowl in the second innings. Surendranath replaced him in the next Test. He was recalled to the Test side three years later against England where he took ten wickets in three Tests. This was followed by the tour to West Indies in 1961–62. Partly due to the presence off too many

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are consi ...

s in the side, Ranjane played only in the final Test where he took the wickets of

Conrad Hunte Sir Conrad Cleophas Hunte, KA (9 May 1932 – 3 December 1999) was a Barbadian cricketer. Hunte played 44 Test matches as an opening batsman for the West Indies. Early life and career Hunte was born in rural St Andrew Parish in the ...

Rohan Kanhai Rohan Babulal Kanhai (born 26 December 1935) is a Guyanese former cricketer of Tamil Indo-Guyanese origin , who represented the West Indies in 79 Test matches. He is widely considered to be one of the best batsmen of the 1960s. Kanhai featur ...

Gary Sobers Sir Garfield St Aubrun Sobers, (born 28 July 1936), also known as Sir Gary or Sir Garry Sobers, is a former cricketer who played for the West Indies between 1954 and 1974. A highly skilled bowler, an aggressive batsman and an excellent fielder, ...

and

Frank Worrell Sir Frank Mortimer Maglinne Worrell (1 August 1924 – 13 March 1967), sometimes referred to by his nickname of Tae, was a West Indies cricketer and Jamaican senator. A stylish right-handed batsman and useful left-arm seam bowler, he became fam ...

. Ranjane came from a very poor background. After his father, who was a factory worker, died when Ranjane was ten, his mother worked as a maid in a hospital to support the family. Ranjane dropped out of the school after the seventh standard. He managed to find a job as a fitter in the

Indian Railways Indian Railways (IR) is a statutory body under the ownership of Ministry of Railways, Government of India that operates India's national railway system. It manages the fourth largest national railway system in the world by size, with a tot ...

where he continued till 1994, but it was hardly sufficient to maintain his six children.Richard Cashman, ''Patrons, players and the crowd'', Orient Longman (1980), p. 92 When his sufferings got exposure in the media in the early 1980s, the

Board of Control for Cricket in India The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the national governing body for cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at Cricket centre, Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The BCCI is the richest governing body of cricket in the world ...

allotted him a benefit match at

Nagpur Nagpur (pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, aːɡpuːɾ is the third largest city and the winter capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the 13th largest city in India by population and according to an Oxford's Economics report, Nag ...

between India and the touring West Indies side in 1983. He also received an

ex gratia (; also spelled ''ex-gratia'') is Latin for "by favour", and is most often used in a legal context. When something has been done ''ex gratia'', it has been done voluntarily, out of kindness or grace. In law, an ''ex gratia payment'' is a paymen ...

payment from the BCCI when his house was damaged in the floods in Poona in the 1960s. His son Subhash played cricket for Maharashtra.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ranjane, Vasant 1937 births 2011 deaths India Test cricketers Indian cricketers Maharashtra cricketers Railways cricketers North Zone cricketers West Zone cricketers Cricketers from Pune