Watching cricket in India | Rajasthan v Railways | Ranji Trophy | Jaipur | October 2026

The old city of Jaipur in Rajasthan is known as the Pink City, as every building is pink or, at the very least, terracotta. Heritage laws enforce a tradition that was started when the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VIII) visited in 1876. Maharaja Sawai Ram Singh II had the old walled city painted pink in his honour as it was seen as the colour of hospitality. It is quite beautiful, especially at night. I recommend dinner on the rooftop at the Tattoo Café opposite the extraordinary Wind Palace (Hawa Mahal).

Even the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II (successor to the fellow who painted the city pink) cricket stadium in Jaipur is pink. We went there to watch the second session of the first day of the Ranji Trophy match between Rajasthan and Railways. The Ranji trophy is the equivalent of county cricket in England, Sheffield Shield in Australia and the old Currie Cup (now called “the 1st Class series”, a cop-out descriptor if there ever was one; no sponsor) in South Africa. High standard first class cricket, honing the skills of cricketers with aspirations of playing Test cricket for their respective countries.

We arrived at the cricket stadium during the lunch break, after having walked through a somewhat dilapidated sports complex whose glory days have long passed. I tried to explore an interesting looking boarded-up cycling oval and was chased away by a security guard, not for the first time in my life. I was surprised to read that only a month back the 63^rd All India Railway Track Cycling Championships were held at this venue. At least this is what Alistair* told me, best to check as he doesn’t always tell the truth**.

An array of statues at the entrance commemorates the achievements of past Indian sportsmen and sportswomen at the Asian Games and the Olympic Games. Contrary to many people’s perception India is damned good at sport. Except for rugby. We know this in South Africa where we wait patiently for an enduring Indian rugby Springbok. If we find him (or her if we include our Springbok women’s team) we will finally be a truly representative Rainbow Nation on the rugby field. Actually, we haven’t had a Jew for a while either, traditionally key to our success (think Syd Nomis and Joel Stransky). It is not an easy task selecting a national team in South Africa that pleases everyone. Luckily if we win nobody really gives a shit as to who is in the team.

As I read the inscriptions on the various statues, I noted plenty of success for India in field hockey, archery, squash, badminton, chess, horse polo and, somewhat perplexingly, in bonking. I was not aware that bonking has been either an individual or team (conceivably either or both) sport at any major sporting event in recent history but, having got my mind around the concept, it seemed logical that Indians are probably the most likely nation to achieve medal success. What else would one expect from the nation that produced the Kama Sutra.

Perhaps I erred in my interpretation of the bonking statue, I’ll let the reader judge for themselves.

Meandering back to the cricket the score at the start of the second session (when we arrived) was 102/2. Two promising young batsmen were at the crease. Sachin Yadav (22 years old) had got to his 50 before lunch and Karan Lamba (21 years old) was just shy of 20. Each had a handful of first-class appearances under the belt, with promising batting averages of around 50. The article in the Times of India (Jaipur edition) alerted me to potential of Rajasthan captain Kartik Sharma in particular. Earlier in the year he had gone for $1.3 m to the Chennai Super Kings (we drove past their stadium in Chennai in our tuk-tuk a month ago) at the IPL auction. Not bad for a 20-year-old. Sadly, we didn’t get to see him play and even if we had we didn’t miss much as he was dismissed for 4 runs.

Aside from being very pink the stadium was also very empty. No more than 50 spectators, including an enterprising young lad from Australia. He was gracious in our discussion on the result of the first test between South Africa and Australia, a convincing win for the latter. Fortunately, as I write this, we are doing much better in the second test, with our beloved captain Temba Bavuma scoring a majestic 179.

We found some shade and two plastic chairs in section of the ground that looked reserved for the respective cricket administration offices. We were the only people in that section. Cool polished cement floors under shade were too much to resist and Carla slept blissfully for most of the two and a half hours that we were there. The Sunday Times of the day reported that a 60-year-old woman had recently broken the world record for planking, a mere five and a half hours. Carla, in her supine position on the cement may well have been starting the long road to breaking this record, albeit starting at the very beginning, position zero (body still touching the floor). I have not discussed this with her as she may be wanting to keep it as a surprise. “Better to let sleeping wives lie” goes the old saying, so very wise.

A stray dog ignored my friendly encouragement to come over for a pat on the head. After a while we saw him happily trotting around on the cricket field, oblivious to the game going on around him. The players didn’t seem to mind his presence; the game went on regardless.

The cricket itself was top quality. The two batsmen added another 120 runs without the loss of a wicket. Sachin Yadav went to his 100 just before the tea break, his teammates giving him a rousing salutation from the side of the field. I clapped loudly from where I was sitting, startling the fielders nearest to me. They had not expected applause from this quarter of the field, actually from anywhere other than their teammates to be honest. Yadav had failed in his previous Ranji Trophy match, the first of this season, scoring 1 and 0. You could see his joy and relief when he raised his bat, taking off his helmet and giving thanks. As to what divine (or not) presence he directed his thanks to, your guess is as good as mine; this is India and there is a smorgasbord of options.

Our comfortable and shady viewing spot came to an end when a humourless official told us to buggar off. “Government offices” he said, which is code for “buggar off” and off we went. We weren’t too fussed as it was nearly time to leave anyway. It had been lovely, lovely in pink.

On the way out I chatted to the curator, Sriram from Bangalore. “I am a national curator” he told us, “I travel the country and my job is to make sure that the pitches are neutral”. All I can say is that Sriram and the local ground staff have done an outstanding job. The stadium may be falling apart but the field surface was as perfect as I have ever seen.

No wonder the stray dog was enjoying itself so much. I came close to kicking off my shoes and walking onto the field myself, perhaps a yearning for a familiarity that I had last felt as a youngster at the Wanderers cricket stadium in the 1970s when we played on the field during the lunch interval. Mini-games wherever one looked, a tradition that sadly has fallen away.

Looking back in the records I noted that only one Test match had ever been played in this stadium, way back in 1987 between India and Pakistan, a safe result given the simmering tensions between the two counties. The Pakistan border is not that far from Jaipur. The 1987 match itself had some controversy due to a sawdust incident that the Pakistan players objected to. This was unfortunate as the Pakistan President had attended the match as part of his “Cricket for Peace’ initiative.

The last ODI international was played at the SMS Stadium in 2013. Darryl Cullinan of South Africa hit 106 in a losing effort against India in 1996. The stadium is listed as one of the home grounds for the IPL team Rajasthan Royals. Their last game here was five months ago. I hope they tidied up the stadium for that match, although perhaps all it needed was an industrial weed eater. It certainly wasn’t lacking charm, if you are fond of a 1970s (pink) concrete look.

Over the next few days, I followed the progress of our Ranji Trophy match on Cricinfo and in the newspapers. The two guys we had watched carried on batting the rest of the day we were there and almost right through to the end of the following day. Their partnership finally finished at 338, and they had identical scores of 194 by the time they lost their wickets. Yadav now has a batting average of 72, Lamba 56. I will keep a lookout for them in the hope that they one day will get their national colours for India. When that happens, I will remember when I had the privilege of watching them at the very start of their journey in the pink stadium of Jaipur.

I am writing up our Ranji trophy experience whilst we are on the train from Jaipur to Udaipur, a seven-hour journey, the retelling of which I will get to shortly. My thoughts go to Paul Theroux’s account (Ghost Train to the Eastern Star) of his experience of watching India play England in an ODI during England’s tour of India in 2006. My experience was very different to Theroux’s; an empty stadium compared to a full house at the match he attended. 

During the two months that we have been in India the West Indies have been touring. I would have loved to have attended one of those matches, especially since the West Indies have given a really good account of themselves, but I have no regrets that my cricket immersion during my time in India has been here in Jaipuir for a Ranji Trophy match and also in Pondicherry for the India A v Australia A match. A life-time ambition realised, watching cricket in India.