Ronald Charles Irani (born 26 October 1971) is an English former

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er. He played three

Tests Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film) ...

for

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in 1996 and 1999, but found a niche in

One Day International One Day International (ODI) is a format of cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of fifty overs, with the game lasting up to 7 hours. The World Cup, generally held every four yea ...

s, where he gained much praise for his performances. He spent most of his career at

Essex County Cricket Club Essex County Cricket Club is one of eighteen first-class county clubs within the domestic cricket structure of England and Wales. It represents the historic county of Essex. Founded in 1876, the club had minor county status until 1894 w ...

, latterly as

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

, after starting at

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

. He is of Irani descent, the Iranis being a community of Persian

Zoroastrian Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, Zoroaster ( ). Among the wo ...

s who immigrated to India during the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

. Irani was a genuine

all-rounder An all-rounder is a cricketer who regularly performs well at both batting and bowling. Although all bowlers must bat and quite a handful of batsmen do bowl occasionally, most players are skilled in only one of the two disciplines and are cons ...

until a knee injury in 2003 forced him to stop bowling and play as a specialist batsman. The injury led to Irani being forced to retire from

first-class cricket First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

in June 2007. At Essex, Irani helped bring through promising players such as

Alastair Cook Sir Alastair Nathan Cook (born 25 December 1984) is an English former cricketer and former captain (cricket), captain of the England Test Cricket, Test and One-Day International, ODI teams. He is considered one of the greatest opening batsmen ...

and Ravinder Bopara, as well as winning two major One-Day Titles. Professionally he scored over 20,000 runs and took more than 650 wickets during his career.

Personal life

Irani's father Jimmy Irani arrived in Bolton from

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

in 1961 to play a summer's club cricket. During that summer he met 16-year-old Lancastrian Anne Main. The two married and had a son, Ronnie. Jimmy Irani was an enthusiastic, successful and prolific club cricketer with Daisy Hill and Atherton in the Bolton Association who often put up overseas players, such as Farokh Engineer and

Javed Miandad Mohammad Javed Miandad PP SI (; born 12 June 1957), popularly known as Javed Miandad (; ), is a Pakistani cricket coach, commentator and former cricketer known for his unconventional style of captaincy and batting. ESPNcricinfo described him ...

, during Ronnie's childhood. From March 1991 to May 1992 Irani was a director of F.A.M. Publishing Ltd, which has since changed its name to Parcel2Go.

Domestic career

He started his career playing for

in 1990, before he moved to

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

in 1994. At Essex, he gained cult status, before he became

in 2000, and is generally accepted to have done a decent job in charge, helping to bring through promising players such as

, Will Jefferson and Ravi Bopara. After Graham Gooch stepped down as the club's head coach prior to the start of the 2005 season, Irani assumed some of these responsibilities in addition to his role as county captain. In June 2007, he rejected a new contract with

and announced his retirement from first-class cricket at the end of the 2007 season. He retired with immediate effect later that month.

International career

Irani was awarded fans' player of the series in Natwest Series 2002 featuring India and Sri Lanka for his allround performance. He scored 169 runs and took 8 wickets in the tri-series.

After retirement

After his retirement, he co-hosted ''The Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast'' with Scottish former footballer Alan Brazil on

talkSPORT Talksport (styled as talkSPORT) is a sports radio station in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, owned by News Broadcasting. Its content includes live coverage of sporting events, interviews with the leading names in sport and entertai ...

radio from 2007. On the show, he was nicknamed Chicken, from the dish chicken biryani rhyming with his surname. In 2013 he was sacked. Irani also appeared as a guest on the BBC quiz show A Question of Sport. In 2009 Irani's autobiography "No Boundaries" was published. He was part of a celebrity 'consortium' (along with Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans) who clubbed together to pay for Paul Gascoigne to receive treatment for alcoholism in the US. In 2015, Irani took up the position of Cricket Committee Chairman at Essex and expressed his desire for the club to improve its performances. He left the role in 2021. Irani is also the co-founder/inventor of OrthoSole, an orthotic insole.

Personality

He is known by many sports fans for an "Exercise Routine" during an England One-Day International in Australia. He was doing a warm-up while fielding, and unbeknown to Irani, the Australian fans were imitating his routine behind his back. When he discovered what they were doing, he played up to the tens of thousands of fans and became quicker as to make the fans carry on even more. Irani is a long time supporter of

Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...

, after being taken to games by his father when he was a child.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Irani, Ronnie 1971 births Living people England One Day International cricketers England Test cricketers English cricketers Essex cricketers Essex cricket captains Lancashire cricketers Sportspeople from Leigh, Greater Manchester English people of Indian descent Sportspeople of Indian descent British Asian cricketers Irani (India) people British Zoroastrians First-Class Counties Select XI cricketers Cricketers from Greater Manchester