Descended from the royal family of Nawanagar, Duleepsinhji was born on the Kathiawar peninsula in present-day Gujarat. He was educated at the Rajkot, before moving to England where he attended Cheltenham College and Cambridge University. He represented Sussex in the English county championship, whom he captained later. He was one of the most prolific scorers in first class cricket with more than 15,000 runs including 50 centuries at an average just below 50. He was a slip fielder and took 256 catches. Though he had a short test career, he scored 995 runs at an average of 58.52 and has one of the highest averages in the history of test cricket.
Post his cricketing career, Duleepsinhji served as the High Commissioner of India in Australia and New Zealand and later as the chairman of the Public Service Commission in Saurashtra. Duleep Trophy, one of the premier first class cricket competitions in India is named after him.
In natural gifts of eye, wrist and footwork he is certainly far above the ordinary measure... there is no doubt about the judgment and certainty with which he takes toll of straight balls of anything but the most immaculate length. His late cutting is quite beautiful and there is a certain ease and maturity about all his batting methods that stamps him as of a different class from the ordinary school batsman.
He returned to play for Sussex in 1928 and scored more than 2500 runs in each of the next three seasons.[5] In the 1930 English cricket season, he made his top score of 333 runs on a single day against Northamptonshire which is the highest score by a Sussex batter till date.[6] He scored centuries in each of the two innings three times in his career.[5]
In 1931, he was appointed the captain of Sussex and had his most prolific year scoring 12 centuries with four of them in successive innings.[1] He retired from first class cricket in 1932 due to illness.[1] He was one of the most prolific scorers in first class cricket with more than 15,485 runs including 50 centuries at an average of 49.95 with 9,178 runs including 35 centuries at an average of 51.56 for Sussex.[5] He headed the batting average charts in the County championship in every season from 1926 to 1932. He was a prolific slip fielder and took 256 catches.[1]
Test career
Of singular charm of character; extremely modest of his own wonderful ability; and with a love for the game which transcended his joy in all other pastimes, Duleepsinhji will always be remembered as one of the outstanding personalities during his period in first-class cricket.
Duleep had to withdraw from the MCC team for the bodyline tour of Australia in 1932.[10] He made 12 appearances in tests and scored 995 runs at an average of 58.52 and has one of the highest averages in the history of test cricket.[11]
The Duleep Trophy, one of the premier first class cricket competitions in India is named after him.[16]
Notes
^Duleepsinhji's name includes the Gujarati suffix -sinhji, composed of two separate elements: -sinh, a cognate of Singh (a name common amongst the Rajputs of Gujarat ), and -ji, a general honorific. His name is less commonly given as Duleepsinhji. During his playing career, Duleepsinhji was often recorded on scorecards as Duleep or K. S. Duleepsinhji. The latter usage derives from the honorifics KumarShri, which were not his given names, but part of his title. The use of initials derived from the tradition of distinguishing amateur players from professionals – amateurs had their initials listed on scorecards, whereas professionals were denoted by only their surnames.
