Sussex musuem honours Ranjit Singhji

A part of the Sussex Cricket Museum, in the English city of Hove, was dedicated in the memory of late cricketer, K S Ranjit Singhji.

This section of the museum was inaugurated by acting Indian High Commissioner to UK, Rajesh Prasad,

Ranjit Singh was an Indian prince and a Test cricketer who played for the English cricket team and county cricket for Sussex. He has been credited for bringing an unconventional technique of batting backed with fast reactions; he brought a new style to batting that revolutionised the game.

India's premier domestic cricket championship, Ranji Trophy is named after the classy cricketer.

Rob Broddie, a librarian at the museum said Ranjit Singhji was closely associated with Sussex for several years.

"He was revered, if you read out history books. He was a very special player; he was in fact the greatest player, both himself, his nephew Dalip, Maurice Tate, Arthur Gilligan. We have had some really special players here. If you go back you had the revered David Shepherd, Tony Greig, Nawab Ali Pataudi, the names go on. The club has very rich history but also this very close connection with the Indians, which I have tried here to show and it's been rather difficult because I had eight weeks to put it together. This is just a part of it, there is many other archive which I haven't been able to access," said Broddie.

Praising the late cricketer, Broddie said he was a great benefactor of the club and often invited English players to his palace in India.

"He was so generous to the club, a great benefactor and he was always inviting English players to his palace in India and the players would go out there and he would treat them royally," added Broddie.

The Sussex Cricket Museum has been allocated more space to facilitate the display of rare memorabilia of Ranjit Singhji and other revered Indian cricketers who have visited and played at the Sussex cricket grounds.

The museum is also celebrating 100 years of the first visit to Hove by an official Indian team, in 1911. However, the first Indian team, the Bombay Parsees, came here in May 1886. They could win just one match out of 28, and lost 19 games.