Published in June 1897 to coincide with Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, Ranjitsinhji's Jubilee Book of Cricket was the most ambitious cricket manual ever produced and the first to be illustrated with photographs. Dedicated to the Queen, the 474-page volume codified Ranji's leg-glance technique, set out the first modern explanation of batting against pace and spin, and remained the definitive cricket coaching book for thirty years. Ranji's ghost-writer was the cricket journalist C.B. Fry.
Cricket coaching books before 1897 — including Beldham, Felix and Lillywhite — had been short, illustrated only with line drawings, and aimed at clubs. The Blackwood commission for Ranji was on a different scale: a hardback omnibus that would teach the game to amateurs and serve as a cultural artefact in its own right.
Negotiations between Blackwood and Ranji ran through the 1895-96 winter; the contract was signed in early 1896. Photographic plates were commissioned through 1896-97 at Hove, Lord's and Cambridge. Fry began drafting in late 1896.
Ranjitsinhji's manuscript for the Jubilee Book began as an extended commercial commission from the Edinburgh publishers William Blackwood and Sons in late 1895. The actual writing was done collaboratively with C.B. Fry, who had already begun to make a parallel name as a cricket journalist; Ranji supplied the technical content and Fry the prose. The publication was timed for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee (June 1897); permission to dedicate the book to the Queen had been granted through Lord Harris.
The finished volume ran to 474 pages with 115 photographic plates. It included extended technical chapters on batting, bowling, fielding and wicket-keeping; historical chapters by Lord Harris and Andrew Lang; and a celebrated chapter on the leg-glance, the off-side stroke that Ranji had brought into Test cricket the year before. The book was the first sports manual to use posed action photography systematically — a model later copied by every cricket coaching guide.
It sold prodigiously. The first edition was followed by reprints in 1898, 1900 and 1912; second-hand copies still appear in the £400-£800 range at auction. As a coaching text it remained the standard until Sir Don Bradman's How to Play Cricket in 1934. As a piece of Indian-English cultural history it is the foundation document of Indian cricket writing.
Late 1895: Blackwood commissions the manuscript.
1896: Photographic plates shot at Hove, Lord's, Cambridge.
Late 1896: Fry begins drafting prose with Ranji.
Apr 1897: Manuscript completed; permission to dedicate to Queen.
Jun 1897: Publication to coincide with Diamond Jubilee.
First edition 474 pages; 115 photographic plates.
Reprinted 1898, 1900, 1912.
Standard coaching text until Bradman 1934.
Late 1895
Blackwood commissions the book.
1896
Photographic plates shot.
Late 1896
Fry drafts prose with Ranji.
Apr 1897
Manuscript completed.
Jun 1897
Publication for Diamond Jubilee.
“When you have got a bat in your hands, you should think only of what you intend to do with it.”
“The leg-glance is not a fluky stroke. It can be taught and it can be learned.”
Ranji's commercial endorsements multiplied; he became the first cricketer to be paid for product photography in advertising (Pears soap, 1898). Fry's career as a cricket writer was launched on the credit of the Jubilee Book; his own collaborations would extend into 1939. The book itself became a collector's item; Sotheby's first edition copies have changed hands at over £1,000.
The first modern cricket manual, ghost-written by C.B. Fry, illustrated with photographs and dedicated to Queen Victoria. Cricket's leg-glance was codified in print for the first time.
The Jubilee Book is the founding document of cricket coaching literature. Its emphasis on the leg-glance — a stroke previously regarded as fluky — codified what is now an orthodox technique. Modern Indian cricket writing, from Sujit Mukherjee to Ramachandra Guha, traces a direct lineage to Ranji's 1897 prose. The book is preserved in the MCC Library, the Bodleian and the Bombay Asiatic Society.
Yorkshire v Essex
1932-06-16
On 15-16 June 1932 Herbert Sutcliffe (313) and Percy Holmes (224*) put on 555 for the first wicket against Essex at Leyton, breaking the world first-class record for any wicket and adding a layer of folklore — including a scoreboard that read 554 for several minutes and a hastily reversed declaration — that has clung to the partnership ever since.
Australia v England
1933-02-14
With the fate of the Bodyline series in the balance and England 216 for 6 chasing 340, Eddie Paynter checked himself out of a Brisbane hospital where he was being treated for acute tonsillitis, taxied to the Gabba in pyjamas and a dressing gown, and batted for nearly four hours to score 83. England drew level on first innings, won the Test by six wickets and the series 4-1.
Australia
1934-09-25
Days after the 1934 Oval Test, Bradman fell seriously ill with appendicitis that progressed to peritonitis. With antibiotics not yet available, he was given little chance of survival; his wife Jessie left Adelaide on a sea voyage to England prepared for the worst. He recovered after weeks of intensive nursing in a London nursing home and returned to first-class cricket the following Australian summer.