Samarjitsinh Ranjitsinh Gaekwad (born 25 April 1967) is a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

administrator and former

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 one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officia ...

er. Samarjitsinh Gaekwad is the king of baroda in Gujarat (India). He received the larger portion of the family's fortune in a 2013 settlement.

Early life and family

Samarjitsinh was born on 25 April 1967 as the only son of

Ranjitsinh Pratapsinh Gaekwad Ranjitsinhrao Gaekwad (8 May 1938 – 10 May 2012) was an Indian politician. Early life and education Born 8 May 1938 at Ootacamund, Ranjitsinhrao Gaekwad was the second son of Maharaja Pratap Singh Rao Gaekwad (r. 1939–1951), and Maharani ...

and Shubhanginiraje. He studied at

The Doon School The Doon School (informally Doon School or Doon) is a selective all-boys boarding school in Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India, which was established in 1935. It was envisioned by Satish Ranjan Das, a lawyer from Calcutta, who prevised a school mod ...

Dehradun Dehradun () is the capital and the most populous city of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and is governed by the Dehradun Municipal Corporation, with the Uttarakhand Legislativ ...

where he simultaneously captained the school's cricket, football and tennis teams. After the death of his father in May 2012, Samarjitsinh was crowned Maharaja in a traditional ceremony at

Laxmi Vilas Palace The Lakshmi Vilas Palace in Vadodara, Gujarat, India, was constructed by the Gaekwad family, a prominent Maratha family, who ruled the Baroda State. Major Charles Mant was credited to be the main architect of the palace. Lakshmi Vilas Palace w ...

on 22 June 2012. He settled a 23-year-long legal inheritance dispute worth more than (~ 3 billion in 2013) with his uncle

Sangramsinh Gaekwad Sangramsinh Pratapsinh Gaekwad (born 6 August 1941) is an Indian former first-class cricketer and cricket coach. He is a member of the Gaekwad dynasty of Baroda and currently first in the line of succession to the unofficial titleThe Government ...

in 2013. Through the deal, Samarjitsinh secured ownership of Laxmi Vilas Palace, over of real estate near the palace including

Moti Bagh Stadium Motibaug Stadium is a cricket stadium located in Vadodara, Gujarat. The ground form part of the Lakshmi Vilas Palace building complex - a sprawling complex in the heart of the city. The palace and the stadium, earlied belonged to the former r ...

and

Maharaja Fateh Singh Museum Maharaja Fateh Singh Museum is a museum housed within the Maharaja's palace (the Lakshmi Vilas Palace) in Vadodara, India. Overview The building was constructed as a school for the Maharaja's children. Today a large number of works of art bel ...

, several paintings by

Raja Ravi Varma Raja Ravi Varma ( ml, രാജാ രവിവർമ്മ; 29 April 1848 – 2 October 1906) was an Indian painter and artist. He is considered among the greatest painters in Indian art, the history of Indian art. His works are one of the bes ...

as well as movable assets belonging to Fatehsinghrao such as gold, silver and royal jewelry. He also obtained control of temples trust that operates 17 temples in

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the nin ...

and in Banaras, Uttar Pradesh.

Personal life

Since 2002, Samarjitsinh is married to Radhikaraje, who is from the royal family of

Wankaner State Wankaner State was one of the princely states of India in the historical Halar region of Kathiawar during the period of the British Raj. It was an eleven gun salute state belonging to the Kathiawar Agency of the Bombay Presidency. Its capital w ...

; the couple has two daughters. The four of them, along with Shubhanginiraje, live in the Laxmi Vilas Palace, which is the largest private residence in India. After becoming Maharaja, Samarjitsinh opened a section of the palace complex as a banquet facility for private ceremonies under his Laxmi Vilas Banquets venture. Samarjitsinh joined

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; ; ) is a political party in India, and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the List of ruling p ...

in November 2014, but is inactive in politics as of 2017.

Cricket career

Samarjitsinh played cricket for

Baroda Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capi ...

in the

Ranji Trophy The Ranji Trophy (also known as Mastercard Ranji Trophy for sponsorship reasons) is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between multiple teams representing regional and state cricket associations. Board of Control for Cr ...

. He appeared in six first-class matches as a top-order batsman between the 1987/88 and 1988/89 seasons. He later became a cricket administrator and served as the president of the

Baroda Cricket Association Baroda Cricket Association is the governing body of the Cricket activities in the Baroda region in the Gujarat state of India and the Baroda cricket team. It is affiliated to the Board of Control for Cricket in India. Many past and present Indi ...

. As of 2015, he runs a cricket academy at the Moti Bagh Stadium. Apart from cricket, he played

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

and built a 10-hole

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". The ...

and

clubhouse Clubhouse may refer to: Locations * The meetinghouse of: ** A club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal ** In the United States, a country club ** In the United Kingdom, a gentlemen's club * A ...

at the Laxmi Vilas Palace complex.

Footnotes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaekwad, Samarjitsinh 1967 births Living people Indian cricketers Baroda cricketers Indian cricket administrators Gaekwad dynasty The Doon School alumni Bharatiya Janata Party politicians from Gujarat