Ranji Trophy to be renamed as ‘Ravindraji’ Trophy

Ahead of the Indian domestic season, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) yesterday announced that the Ranji trophy, India’s premier domestic First-Class cricket championship, shall be renamed as the 'Ravindraji Trophy'.

Ahead of the Indian domestic season, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) yesterday announced that the Ranji trophy, India’s premier domestic First-Class cricket championship, shall be renamed as the ‘Ravindraji Trophy’. The decision was taken by the International Cricket Council (ICC) chairman and pseudo BCCI president N Srinivasan, and former ICC and BCCI chief Sharad Pawar to honour His Highness Sir Ravindra Jadeja Ji. The two met yesterday at the latter’s Nagpur residence, where apparently this decision was made.

It was widely speculated in the media that the two would be meeting to discuss about who the next BCCI chief is going to be. But both Srinivasan and Pawar rubbished all such media reports. Talking to our correspondent, Srinivasan said, “There’s no need for a new chief when I’m already there. It is anyway a trivial issue. We discussed the all important issue of renaming the Ranji Trophy after Sir Ravindra Jadeja. We had been planning for such a move since long but since Sir Jadeja was busy playing international cricket, we were waiting for the right time. Now that he is out of the side and available to play entire domestic season, the timing was apt.”

On being asked what the rationale behind this decision was, Srinivasan said, “When the tournament was conceptualised, it was being named after one of the greatest players of all time, His Highness Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji. We’ve come a long way since that day and today, we’re more than happy to rename it after one of the greatest modern day players, His Highness Sir Ravindra Jadeja Ji. The decision was taken in order to honour the great man and to make the tournament more contemporary.”

Ranji Trophy was first played in the year 1934. Those were the days when only four-day cricket was played and the ODIs & T20s were still ages away. Now that the game of cricket has evolved a lot, renaming the tournament after a complete modern day cricketer who has shown his prowess in all three formats, does make sense, says the ICC chairman.

Our sources claim that though the BCCI was impressed by the ‘triple’ triple centurion His Highness Sir Jadeja Ji’s massive scores and plenty of wickets in the domestic circuit, his on-field exploits alone didn’t lead the BCCI to this decision. It had also got something to do with the similarities between His Highness Sir Jadeja Ji and His Highness Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji. Srinivasan explained, “Of course the two legends have a lot in common. Both have been honored with the official title of ‘His Highness’, both have been the finest all-rounders game has ever witnessed and last but not the least, both the legends come from the Saurashtra region,” Srinivasan signed off by saying this.

Well the chairman forgot to mention one similarity though, that both didn’t play for India. One played for England and the other one is famous for playing as the 12th man of the opposition.

Please note this is a humour article — work of pure fiction

(A self-confessed cricket freak, Chinmay Jawalekar is senior content writer with Criclife. When not writing or following cricket, he loves to read, eat and sleep. He can be followed at @CricfreakTweets)

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