Swapnil is youngest Ranji player

Baroda's left-arm spinner Swapnil Singh on Tuesday became the youngest player in the country to play in the Ranji Trophy at 14 years and 355 days.

Till now, the youngest player playing Ranji was Baroda's Saheb Jayendra Ghorpade, who started playing at the age of 16 years, 113 days against Maharashtra during the 1954-55 season.

Swapnil's parents Kamaljit and Meetu, originally from Lucknow, decided to shift to Baroda in 2001 for the sake of their son's cricketing career.

"Both of them wanted me to make my career in cricket," Singh said at the close of opening day's play between Baroda and Hyderabad at Motibaugh ground in Vadodara on Tuesday.

Swapnil's father Kamaljit, a businessman, doesn't want his son to take up his profession.

"My performance has been consistently good ever since I started playing Under-14 Vijay Merchant tournament, and other under-19 and under-22 tournaments," Singh added.

While playing under-19, he captured 33 wickets drawing the attention of Kiran More, chairman of the selection committee of Baroda Cricket Association.

More advised him to concentrate on his bowling saying he has good potential to become a spinner.

He was happy that More and another national selector V B Chandrasekhar were present at the ground to watch him make his Ranji Trophy debut.