Thread by @shrikanth_krish

CB Fry's autobiography is a great book

Fry ofcourse was one of England's greatest cricketers in the early 1900s and a teammate of the great Ranjitsinhji for both Sussex and England

Written in 1939, the book is particularly insightful for its comments on the great Ranji

Here's Fry -

"No one who saw him (Ranji) performing at the wicket is likely to forget him. He had the same reputation for being a marvel as Don Bradman has now"

This was written in 1939 - some 2+decades after Ranji quit big time cricket, and when Don Bradman was at his peak

Here's more

"At his best, Ranji was a miraculous batsman. He had no technical faults whatever. The substratum of his play was absolutely sound. What gave him his distinctiveness was his combination of perfect poise and suppleness ..peculiar to the athletic Hindu"

"I have never seen a batsman reserve his stroke so late as Ranji, nor apply his bat to the ball with such electric quickness. He scored his runs on dry wickets very fast. I have often been in with him while he scored eighty to my twenty"

"It was impossible to bowl him a ball outside off stump that he could not cut, and he could vary the direction of the stroke from square to fine. So distinctive was Ranji's cutting and wristplay on the leg side that one almost forgot to notice his strokes in front of the wicket"

On comparing Ranji with Bradman

"Both these super-eminent players could devastate the bowling more thoroughly than any batsman I have seen. But while Ranji sliced it to pieces with a razor edged scimitar, Bradman whips it to shreds with a cane"

"Don Bradman's enormous scores surpass Ranji's figures, but Ranji played under the necessities of three-day cricket, and against bowling, which beyond all question, was much more difficult to treat contemptuously by way of strokes"

On comparing Ranji with WG Grace (Ranji's great predecessor)

"Old Bob Thomas, the first class umpire, who probably saw the most cricket from 1870 to 1900, told me that the Prince (Ranji) was a greater batsman then the Doctor (WG) because he had more strokes"

The book is replete with fascinating anecdotes and judgments from an era often dubbed by cricket historians the "Golden Age of Cricket" (1895 to 1914)

Here he is comparing the relative standards of play between the "Golden age" (early 1900s) with the 1930s -

"With the exception of Larwood, the modern generation of batsman (in the 30s), have not seen anything like the fast bowling as the term was exemplified in E.Jones, Lockwood, Richardson, CJ Kortright, Mold, SMJ Woods, J Sharp, and one or two others of that era"

(Contd..)

"Just as batsmen of those days had no conception of leg break bowling as it is known now"

Fascinating!

Here is Fry discussing the greatest batsmen of all time (up to 1939) -

"I suppose the argument would be between WG, Trumper, Ranji, and Don Bradman."

(Contd..)

"My summary would be that WG had more power than the other three put together, and one stroke for every ball the bowler could bowl. Victor Trumper had the greatest charm and two strokes for every ball. Ranji had the greatest finesse and three strokes for every ball" (Contd.)

"....Bradman has made the highest number of runs, and has strokes of his own which the other three had not, he may be briefly scheduled as a phenomenon. He alone rivals Ranji in originality....All the other three were better bats than Trumper when all were out of form"