Among families that made remarkable contributions to cricket in Madras Presidency and later Tamil Nadu, one encounters an unlikely name—the Singhs.
They stand out conspicuously in a long list of typical Tamil names and make for a whole chapter in the annals of the state’s cricket history. From this family, which produced three generations of cricketers in over six decades, comes Arjan Kripal Singh who maintains the tradition and plays club matches for the Madras Cricket Club.
A full-time entrepreneur, who runs an adventure, holiday and trekking company Getupandgo, Arjan is probably the family’s only link with the game now. “My great grandfather A G Singh, who migrated to Madras in the early 1900s, adopted the initials AG, after he observed that Tamilians used initials instead of surnames. A stands for his native place Amritsar and G for Guru Nanak,” says Arjan.
However, the Singhs’ tryst with the game began only in the 30s with A G Singh’s son A G Ram Singh, representing Madras against Mysore. “My granddad was part of the very first Ranji Trophy match held in Madras in 1934. Retiring from first-class cricket in 1945, he was the second cricketer to take 100 wickets and score 1,000 runs in Ranji matches,” Arjan says.
The record-making spree didn’t end there, for Ram Singh’s sons A G Kripal Singh (Arjan’s father) and A G Milkha Singh took the legacy forward. Kripal, a right-hand batsman and off-spinner made a 100 on debut against New Zealand in Hyderabad, while the youngest brother, Satwender, had a stint in first-class cricket for Tamil Nadu.
Arjan was the vice-captain of the inaugural under-19 World Cup in New Zealand and Australia in the 80s and scored a triple century in his second Ranji match. With a batting average of 42.71 and 1495 runs in 31 matches, the batsman retired from first-class cricket in the mid-nineties at the age of 26, after a knee injury. “My career ended there and till then, my family had at least one member representing the state—the list includes my sister Malavika,” Arjan adds.
Having served as a BCCI match referee and a level-one coach, Arjan stays connected to the game even today. Playing matches for the MCC, Arjan juggles cricket and travelling. And it was the game that stoked the traveller instinct in him. “I often took off on short travel trips in and around England and Scotland while playing league cricket. It was TV host Ian Wright’s show Lonely Planet that got me hooked to the idea of seeing new places. After quitting first-class cricket, I explored the interest more consciously,” he says.
In 2012, Arjan’s interest culminated into getupandgo.in, giving a much needed impetus to trekking in South India. Partnering with archaeologist Neha Kothari from Mumbai, he is engaged full-time with treks in mountains, biking expeditions in locations from the Himalayas, Central Asia and South America, apart from pockets of India.
Though he is happy helping tourists discover adventure travel in India, Arjan says the cricketer in him will never die. “Only that now the adventure traveller in me has come to the fore,” he says.