A cricketer who defied age to make his first-class debut at 72!

 By K.R. Nayar

Age cannot stop any ardent cricketer from playing the game. There have been many instances when players have made their debut even in their fifties. They proved that as long as there is the desire in them to keep playing, nothing can stop them.

Raja Maharaj Singh

While commentating for the Divyang Premier League for Cricketers with Physical Disabilities at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium last week, a question was posed to online viewers on Raja Maharaj Singh. From a few options, viewers were asked to pick the age at which Maharaj Singh had made his first-class debut. The right answer was that Singh made his first-class debut at the age of 72! Interesting facts like these were included in-between by SF360 Digital Production to make live streaming of the event interesting and informative.

The question for viewers on Raja Maharaj Singh during the Divyang Premier League 

In the UAE, we have an all-rounder in Freddy Sidhwa, who is in his mid-seventies but plays in the domestic cricket and even bags the man of the match award. When I heard about Maharaj Singh making his first-class debut at 72, I was curious to know more about him. He is said to have made his debut captaining Bombay Governor’s XI against a touring Commonwealth XI in 1950. Interestingly, he was also the first Indian Governor of then Bombay. Maharaj Singh came out to bat at No.9 and edged the legendary bowler Jim Laker for three runs.  One run later he fell to Laker caught at first slip.

James Southerton

While researching Maharaj Singh, I also looked for the oldest cricketer to make his debut in Test cricket. I learned it was James Southerton of England. He played his first Test at the age of 49 years and 119 days on March 15, 1877, against Australia. He took seven wickets from his two Test matches, though from his 286 first-class matches he has bagged 1682 wickets. He has also scored 3159 runs in first-class cricket. The sad story about him is that he died ten months after he retired from cricket at the age of 52 following a short attack of pleurisy.
Interestingly, the second oldest Test debutant is Miran Bakhsh from Pakistan. He made his Test debut on January 29, 1955, against India when he was 47 years and 284 days old. He was a tall off-spinner and there is an interesting tale about how he took up spin bowling.

Miran Bakhsh

Bakhsh was a groundsman at the Rawalpindi Club and had mastered the art of off-spin bowling on the pitches he made there. He could generate good turn and bounce off the pitch, and that is how he got picked for Pakistan despite having played only two first-class matches. After his playing days, he continued as a groundsman at Rawalpindi and also coached youngsters. He died at the age of 83 on February 8, 1991.

Today, the oldest cricketers playing at the Test level are Sri Lanka’s Dilruwan Perera aged 38 and 271 days followed by England’s James Anderson, who is 38 and 263 days. All these cricketers prove that age is no barrier to success; rather it is the limitation that we create in our minds that puts the breaks on setting landmarks.