Mukundrao Damodar Pai (21 June 18835 August 1948) was an Indian cricketer and a member of the first Indian team that toured England in 1911 under the captaincy of

Bhupinder Singh of Patiala Sir Bhupinder Singh (12 October 1891 – 23 March 1938) was the Maharaja of Patiala and a cricket player. Singh's reign as Maharaja of the princely state of Patiala, in British India, lasted from 1900 to 1938. He was a member of the Phulki ...

. Pai was the first Indian cricketer to score a

century A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. ...

on his first-class debut, playing for the

Hindus Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

against the

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in the Bombay Presidency game in 1906. In a career spanning 15 years, he played a total of 22 first-class matches scoring 640 runs before retiring as a captain of the

Hindus cricket team The Hindus cricket team, run by the Hindu Gymkhana in Bombay, was a first-class team which took part in the annual Bombay Tournament from 1905/06 until its final edition in 1945/46. They won the tournament eleven times. One of their players wa ...

in 1920.

Biography

Pai was born on 21 June 1883 in

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 ...

, in what was then

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

into a

Gaud Saraswat Brahmin Gaud Saraswat Brahmins (GSB) (also Goud or Gawd), also known as Shenvis are a Hindu community of contested caste status and identity. They primarily speak Konkani and its various dialects as their mother tongue. They claim to be Saraswat Bra ...

family. He made his first-class cricket debut in the Bombay Presidency game between Hindus and Europeans at the

Bombay Gymkhana The Bombay Gymkhana, established in 1875, is a premier private members' club in the city of Mumbai, India. It is located at the triangular end of Azad Maidan in the Fort area of South Mumbai and is in close proximity of Chhatrapati Shivaji ...

in 1906. He scored a century on debut, scoring 107 runs in the first innings before being bowled by British army officer William Faviell. In scoring the century, Pai became the first Indian to score a century on his first-class debut. He followed it up with a score of 44 in the second innings before being bowled by another British army officer John Turner. The Hindus went on to win the game by 238 runs. The Europeans were captained by J.G. Greig, while the Hindus were captained by C.V. Mehta. Pai was a member of the Indian cricket team that toured England in 1911 under the captaincy of

, a tour that is recognised as the first official tour of an Indian team to England. As the youngest member of the touring team, he did not have a very successful tour, playing four of the 14 first-class matches on the tour, and scoring a total of 51 runs, including a highest score of 24. He played in the matches against

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, and

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. He was employed in Bombay as a manager with the

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E.D. Sassoon & Co., which was run at that time by the city's prominent

Baghdadi Jews Baghdadi Jews (; ) or Iraqi Jews are historic terms for the former communities of Jewish migrants and their descendants from Baghdad and elsewhere in the Middle East. They settled primarily in the ports and along the trade routes around the In ...

. Pai was elevated to the captaincy of the Hindus during the 1912–13 season, with some reports indicating that the decision might have been motivated by his Brahmanical caste. In a speech while receiving an honour from the ''Gaud Saraswat Brahmin Mitra Mandal'', he acknowledged that the captaincy title had to belong to Palwankar Baloo, who was much more experienced and senior than he was. After his debut century, Pai's next score of more than 50 in a first-class game came in the 1917–18 Bombay Quadrangular match against the Parsees where he scored 75 runs in the first innings before being bowled by H. J. Vajifdar. The game ended in a draw. He played his last first-class game, captaining the Hindus against the Parsees, in the finals of the 1920–21 Bombay Quadrangular. The game ended in a draw. The game was also Baloo's last first-class game; Pai had to spend some time off the field during the game due to ill-health, allowing for Baloo to captain the team for periods of play. In a career spanning 15 years, Pai played a total of 22 first-class matches scoring 640 runs. After his retirement, Pai retained his linkage with the Hindus cricket team in an advisory capacity. During his playing times in the Bombay Quadrangular, he also officiated as an umpire. In an incident during the 1916 tournament game between the Hindus and the Europeans, he ordered J. G. Greig, an army major also known as 'Jungly' Greig, off the field for quarrelling and not accepting the umpire's decision, after Greig had been given out stumped off the bowling of C. K. Nayudu. The Europeans lodged a protest, with Greig writing a letter to the Bombay Gymkhana calling Pai's propriety into question. The Gymkhana sided with Pai, calling the army major's attack "entirely opposed to the interests of sport and ... calculated to create general unpleasantness". The Gymkhana went on to note that a player had "no right to challenge the decision" and that "an umpire's decision must in all cases be held to be final". The controversy resulted in the Hindus impressing on the British the need for neutral umpires, with subsequent games having a member of the

Muslims Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

or Parsees teams officiating when the Hindus and Europeans played. Pai died on 5 August 1948 in the Chikalwadi neighbourhood of Bombay. He was aged 65.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pai, Mukundrao 1883 births 1948 deaths Indian cricketers Cricketers from Mumbai Hindus cricketers Members of the first Indian cricket team to tour England in 1911 Sportspeople from British India