Harry Brook in princely company as Yorkshire CCC star joins exclusive club

The hashtag seemed appropriate - only this time happily - after Harry Brook's hundred against Pakistan in Multan.

Oh Harry indeed after the Yorkshire batsman put smiles back on the faces of English sports fans the morning after the night before.

His second century on just his third Test appearance helped England to a lead of 354, Pakistan closing day three on 198-4 as they sought to level the series 1-1 ahead of the final match in Karachi on Saturday.

By adding 108 to his score of 153 in the first Test at Rawalpindi, Brook became only the third England player after Kumar Ranjitsinhji and Clive Radley to score two hundreds in his first three Tests.

As Andy Zaltzman, the Test Match Special statistician, relayed this nugget after stumps were drawn, it was all too much for Vic Marks, the programme’s esteemed summariser.

“I just have to interject,” chuckled Marks in characteristic style, as the Zaltzman stats-blitz continued apace.

“You couldn’t get a greater contrast between Clive Radley and Ranjitsinhji (chuckle, chuckle). Do carry on!”

As one who did not have the pleasure of watching Radley, the former Middlesex and England batsman who played eight Tests in the late 1970s, let alone the great Ranjitsinhji of sepia vintage, one is not qualified to comment on the extent of that contrast, cricketing or otherwise. However, it can perhaps be deduced from Radley’s Cricinfo profile, which states that he was “not the most gifted or graceful batsman, but he more than made up for that with determination, hard work, and the absence of anything approaching risk. He accumulated runs rather than stroked them.”

Brook, 23, is no accumulator in the Radley-an sense; indeed, it is difficult to think of a more gifted or graceful batsman in the England side, with the possible exception of Joe Root, of course.

Ranjitsinhji, on the other hand, an Indian prince who also went by the catchy title Colonel His Highness Shri Sir Ranjitsinhji Vibhaji Maharajah Jam Saheb of Nawanag (try typing that with a hangover), was one of the most stylish and flamboyant batsmen of cricket’s Golden Age.

Indeed, Ranjitsinhji, or “Ranji” for short, was credited with inventing the leg glance and the late cut, along with the art of the back-foot defence. He was perhaps cricket’s first global superstar around the turn of the 20th century, a batsman of willowy grace and sweet timing who played with a style that was complemented by the silk shirts that he wore buttoned down to his flexible wrists.

Sir Neville Cardus, the great cricket writer, described Ranjitsinhji as “the Midsummer Night’s dream of cricket”, adding that “when Ranji passed out of cricket, a wonder and a glory departed from the game forever”.

Gilbert Jessop, about much we have heard recently as the holder of the fastest Test century for England (Brook almost twice took down in Rawalpindi Jessop’s 76-ball record against Australia at the Oval in 1902), had this to say about his former Sussex and England team-mate.

“From the moment he stepped out of the pavilion he drew all eyes and held them,” wrote Jessop of Ranjitsinhji in the 1920s. “No one who ever saw him bat will forget it. He drew the crowds wherever he went, and at the height of his cricket days the shops in Brighton would empty if he passed along the street. Everyone wanted to see him. Whenever I bowled against him I felt he was impregnable. My impression was ‘I will never get this man out.’ He was indisputably the greatest genius cricket has ever produced.”

In a career spanning almost 30 years, Ranjitsinhji scored fractionally under 25,000 first-class runs at an average of 56, including just under 1,000 at 44 in his 15 Tests.

Like Brook, he started his Test career with a flourish, scoring 154 not out on debut against Australia at Old Trafford in 1896. After two failures in the next game at the Oval, Ranjitsinhji hit 175 against Australia at Sydney in 1897, then the highest individual score for England in Tests.

At the height of his powers, he also accomplished an unprecedented feat against Yorkshire at Hove in 1896, scoring two hundreds in the same day after the hosts were forced to follow-on.

Away from the game, Ranjitsinhji, who’d been brought to England as a teenager to study at Cambridge, played an important role in Indian affairs, twice representing his country at the League of Nations. He succeeded to the Nawanager throne in 1907 and was a popular, benevolent ruler.

In 1915, Ranjitsinhji lost his right eye in a shooting accident on a Yorkshire moor, and then made a brief but misguided return for Sussex in 1920, when he was persuaded to play three games despite that impediment and a growing waistline. He died in 1933, aged 60, while his nephew, KS Duleepsinhji, also played for England.

As for Clive Radley, who in 1978 scored 158 on his second Test appearance against New Zealand at Auckland, and then 106 on his third against Pakistan at Edgbaston, he went on to become head coach of MCC, taking over from Don Wilson, the former Yorkshire spinner, and is still going strong aged 78.

From “Ranji” to Radley and now on to Harry, the new Yorkshire and England cricketing prince.