C. K. Nayudu
Encyclopedia
Cottari Kanakaiya Nayudu (Telugu
Telugu language
Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...

: కట్టారి కనకయ్య నాయుడు) (31 October 1895 – 14 November 1967), also known as CK, was an India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er who served as India's first Test
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...

 captain. He was born in Nagpur
Nagpur
Nāgpur is a city and winter capital of the state of Maharashtra, the largest city in central India and third largest city in Maharashtra after Mumbai and Pune...

, Maharashtra and died in Indore
Indore
Indore is one of the major city in India, the largest city and commercial center of the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India. Indore is located 190 km west of the state capital Bhopal. According to the 2011 Indian census, Indore city has a population of 1,960,631...

, Madhya Pradesh. He played first-class cricket regularly till 1958, and returned for one last time in 1963 at the age of 68. In 1923, the ruler of Holkar
Holkar
The Holkar dynasty , whose earliest known clan-man was Malhar Rao, who joined the service of the Peshwa in 1721, and quickly rose to the ranks of Subedar...

 invited him to Indore
Indore
Indore is one of the major city in India, the largest city and commercial center of the state of Madhya Pradesh in central India. Indore is located 190 km west of the state capital Bhopal. According to the 2011 Indian census, Indore city has a population of 1,960,631...

 and made him a Captain (land and air) in his army. Thus he received an honour of a Colonel in Holkar's Army.

Arthur Gilligan
Arthur Gilligan
Arthur Edward Robert Gilligan was an English cricketer who played for Cambridge University, Sussex, Surrey and England....

 led the first MCC
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...

 tour to India in the 1926-27 season. For the Hindus at Bombay Gymkhana
Bombay Gymkhana
Bombay Gymkhana ,, established in 1875, is one of the premiere gymkhanas in the city of Mumbai, India. It is located in the South Mumbai area and was originally built as a British-only club, designed by English architect, Claude Batley. The Gymkhana Grounds lie in the southern end of the Azad Maidan...

, Nayudu hit 153 in 116 minutes with 11 sixes. One of the sixes, off Bob Wyatt
Bob Wyatt
Robert "Bob" Elliott Storey Wyatt was an English cricket player. He played for Warwickshire, Worcestershire, and the English cricket team....

, landed on the roof of the Gymkhana. The MCC presented him with a silver bat in recognition of that heroic innings.

1932

India made its debut at Lord's under Col C K Nayudu . In its first Test tour of England with the Maharaja of Porbandar
Maharaja of Porbandar
Lieutenant-Colonel H.H. Maharaja Rana Shri Sir Natwarsinhji Bhavsinhji Sahib Bahadur, KCSI was the Maharaja of Porbandar belonging to Jethwa dynasty.-Lifesketch:...

 as captain and Ghanshyamsinhji of Limbdi
Ghanshyamsinhji of Limbdi
Kumar Shri Ghanshyamsinhji Daulatsinhji Jhala of Limbdi was an Indian first class cricketer. He was a cousin of English Test batsman Kumar Shri Duleepsinhji and brother-in-law of Natwarsinhji Bhavsinhji, the Jethwa ruler of Princely State of Porbandar.Kumar Shri Ghanshyamshinhji Daulatsinhji...

 as vice-captain. Two weeks before the trip, Porbandar dropped out on reasons of health and Limbdi took over. It was just before the start of India's inaugural Test, Nayudu was appointed captain of the Indian team as Limbdi suffered a back injury that ruled him out of the Test.

Nayudu took part in all twenty six of the first-class matches on the tour, scoring 1,618 runs at an average
Batting average
Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...

 of 40.45 in the first-class matches and 1,842 overall, and taking 65 wicket
Wicket
In the sport of cricket the word wicket has several distinct meanings:-Definitions of wicket:Most of the time, the wicket is one of the two sets of three stumps and two bails at either end of the pitch...

s. Wisden
Wisden
The Wisden Group was a group of companies formed by John Wisden & Co Ltd, publishers of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. As well as John Wisden & Co, the group included the The Wisden Cricketer magazine, Cricinfo – the world's highest traffic cricket website – and the Hawk-Eye computerised...

chose him as a Cricketer of the Year the next year. Nayudu hit 32 sixes, which was the most by anyone in the season. CK's best stint was playing at Edgbaston
Edgbaston Cricket Ground
Edgbaston Cricket Ground, also known as the County Ground or Edgbaston Stadium, is a cricket ground in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, England...

, he hit a ball into the River Rhea and thus into the next county.

Tall and debonair, often with a kerchief knotted jauntily round his neck, CK was popularly known for his apparel style on field. CK's close companion Syed Mushtaq Ali known for his fearless and dashing cricket played with CK in several matches together. Mushtaq Ali fondly called CK- a tiger on the field.

In the 1933-34 season, Douglas Jardine
Douglas Jardine
Douglas Robert Jardine was an English cricketer and captain of the England cricket team from 1931 to 1933–34.When describing cricket seasons, the convention used is that a single year represents an English cricket season, while two years represent a southern hemisphere cricket season because it...

 visited India with a formidable, though not full strength, MCC
Marylebone Cricket Club
Marylebone Cricket Club is a cricket club in London founded in 1787. Its influence and longevity now witness it as a private members' club dedicated to the development of cricket. It owns, and is based at, Lord's Cricket Ground in St John's Wood, London NW8. MCC was formerly the governing body of...

 team. For Punjab Governor's XI, Nayudu scored a hundred. He was retained as the captain of the Test series. The first ever Test in India, held at the Bombay Gymkhana
Bombay Gymkhana
Bombay Gymkhana ,, established in 1875, is one of the premiere gymkhanas in the city of Mumbai, India. It is located in the South Mumbai area and was originally built as a British-only club, designed by English architect, Claude Batley. The Gymkhana Grounds lie in the southern end of the Azad Maidan...

 between December 15 and 18, was watched by over 100,000 spectators. India lost the series by two Tests to nil.

Six decades in cricket

He is one of the few cricketers to have played the first class game
Nayudu was known as being a outstanding solid batsman, and for his ability as a hard hitter of the ball. He was the first cricketer to be honoured with the Padma Bhushan
Padma Bhushan
The Padma Bhushan is the third highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan, but comes before the Padma Shri. It is awarded by the Government of India.-History:...

.

Early career

Nayudu originally spoke Telugu
Telugu language
Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...

, but he grew up in Nagpur
Nagpur
Nāgpur is a city and winter capital of the state of Maharashtra, the largest city in central India and third largest city in Maharashtra after Mumbai and Pune...

 and played almost all his cricket for Central India. He was drafted in the school team at the age of seven, and showed promise for a bright future.

He made his first class
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...

 debut in 1916 in the Bombay Triangular. For the Hindus against the Europeans, he came in to bat at No.9 with his team tottering at 79 for 7. He blocked his fin six different decades. He made his last appearance in the Ranji Trophy
Ranji Trophy
The Ranji Trophy is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between different city and state sides, equivalent to the County Championship in England and the Sheffield Shield in Australia...

 in 1956-57, aged 62, scoring 52 in his last innings for Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...

. Earlier in the season he had made 84 against Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...

, striking Vinoo Mankad for two sixes. His final outing was in a charity match in 1963-64, when he played for the Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

 Governor's XI against the Maharashtra Chief Minister's XI.

One of Nayudu's daughter, Chandra, wrote a book on her father, C. K. Nayudu: A Daughter Remembers.

Padma Bhushan CK Nayudu is today known as the 'Father of the Indian Cricket'. CK Nayudu Awards are highest reverence awards for captaincy and life time achievement categories in the Indian Cricket.

Further reading


External links

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