Vijay Singh Madhavji Thakersey (English: Vijay Madhavji Thakersey, born- October 12, 1911, Mumbai, Maharashtra; death- October 27, 1987) was a great cricket player of Don Bradman’s era, as much as Sachin Tendulkar is today. His real name was ‘Vijaysingh Madhavji Thakarse’. If we look at his first-class statistics, he comes next after Don Bradman. His average in these matches was 71.64.
Vijay Merchant was born on 12 October 1911 in a wealthy family of the then Bombay Presidency, Maharashtra. When he was just 15 years old, he scored two centuries in a match. After reaching a height of 5 feet 7 inches, he improved his footwork and started making excellent ‘cuts’ of the ball. He represented ‘Hindus’ in Bombay tournaments between 1929 and 1946. Vijay Merchant represented Bombay in the Ranji Trophy from 1933 until his retirement in 1952. Of his 44 centuries in first-class matches, 11 were scored in excess of 200 runs, 9 of which were scored at the Brabourne Stadium in India.[1]
The measure of success in cricket is considered to be Australian player Don Bradman, who is considered the king of cricket. Every successful player in Australia since 1948 has been declared Don Bradman every year. George Hadlee of West Indies is called ‘Black Bradman’. Although Sunil Gavaskar broke many records in cricket, he lagged behind Bradman. But Indian cricket player Vijay Merchant made his average in first-class matches 71.64, which is second only to Don Bradman. However, Vijay Merchant’s Test match statistics are quite different, with his average being 47.72. He scored thousands of runs on the home pitch. He performed brilliantly on two tours of England, which took place at an interval of ten years, and scored a total of 4000 runs. Even at the Indian domestic level, he performed better in Ranji Trophy matches than in first-class matches and averaged 98.75 in 47 innings.
Vijay Merchant once scored 359 and was not out in an innings of 10 hours 45 minutes. He achieved this feat of runs against Maharashtra in Bombay in 1943-1944. While making these runs, he made 371 runs with Modi for the sixth wicket partnership and R.S. for the eighth wicket partnership. Played an inning of 210 runs with Cooper. A year later, in 1945, he along with Modi made a partnership of 373 runs against Western India for the third wicket. Vijay Merchant scored 6 centuries in Ranji Trophy in seven consecutive innings between 1938–1939 and 1941–1942. Vijay Merchant played 10 test matches and ultimately scored 154 runs. He scored these runs against England in Delhi in 1951-1952. Then, while fielding, he suffered a serious shoulder injury, due to which he had to immediately retire from cricket. Before this, he had played an excellent inning of 128 runs at the Oval 5 years ago in August 1946.[1]
Vijay Merchant used to film his innings and then study them carefully. Although he did not take any coaching for playing in the initial days, he went to L.P. Was very impressed with Rai’s style-filled batting. He first started playing Test cricket in 1933-1934. In his first six innings, the highest score he could make in Calcutta was only 54. He toured England in 1936 and scored 1745 runs at an average of 51.32. In the Manchester Test, Vijay Merchant scored 114 and Mushtaq Ali scored 112 runs. Together they scored 203 runs for the first wicket partnership. In the Lancashire match, Merchant performed brilliantly in both the innings at Old Trafford and scored 135 and 77 runs. Due to his success in 1936, Vijay Merchant was chosen as “Wisden Cricketer of the Year”.
Vijay Merchant had become very famous. He was the vice-captain in Senior Nawab Pataudi’s team in 1946. At that time, he performed brilliantly and scored 2385 runs at an average of 74, which included 7 centuries. He scored these runs against Lancashire and Sussex. In his last test matches he scored 245 runs in 5 innings. In his final Oval Test, he scored 128 runs before being run out. He could not go on the tours of Australia and West Indies due to his ill health, but he played his last match against England in 1951–52. He scored his third century and made his highest score of 154 runs in the test match. While fielding in the cricket field, he suffered a serious shoulder injury due to which he had to retire from cricket, at that time he had turned 40 a few days ago.
Vijay Merchant played 10 Test matches over the course of 18 years, in which he scored 859 runs. In Ranji Trophy matches, he played 47 innings, scoring 16 centuries and scored 3639 runs at an astonishing average (98.75) and took 65 wickets at an average of 31.87 while bowling medium pace off-spin. After retiring from sports, he became an administrator, writer and program presenter. He was also a member of the sports selection committee. It was he who made Wadekar the captain of the team in place of Pataudi Jr. He also gave full support in social work.[1]
He died of a heart attack on October 27, 1987 in Bombay (now Mumbai) at the age of 76.