Sunil Gavaskar Releases Sanjay Jagdale Rag Rag Mein Cricket Book in Indore

Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar released the book Sanjay Jagdale: Rag Rag Mein Cricket in Indore on 11 October 2026. Authored by Kiran Waikar and Sunil Dudhale, the book traces the life of Sanjay Jagdale from Madhya Pradesh player to national selector and Board of Control for Cricket in India secretary. It puts the spotlight on an administrator whose work shaped talent pathways and stadiums more than scorecards did.

What Is Rag Rag Mein Cricket About?

The book Sanjay Jagdale: Rag Rag Mein Cricket is a biography of former cricketer and administrator Sanjay Jagdale. The Hindi phrase Rag Rag Mein means cricket in every vein. It signals a life fully absorbed in the game. The book was written by Kiran Waikar and Sunil Dudhale and was released in Indore.

The narrative follows Jagdale from his early days as a player to his later roles as coach, selector and administrator. It covers his work with the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association (MPCA) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The authors say the book records how Jagdale handled administration, improved facilities for players and kept pushing for better cricket systems. At the launch, Sunil Gavaskar said he hoped the book would be useful to young cricketers learning how careers are built off the field as well as on it.

Who Is Sanjay Jagdale?

Sanjay Madansingh Jagdale is a former Madhya Pradesh all-rounder, coach, national selector and cricket administrator from Indore. Born on 22 September 1950, he played 53 first-class matches, served as BCCI junior and senior selector, and later became BCCI joint secretary and secretary.

Sanjay Jagdale comes from a well known cricket family of Indore. His father Madhavsinh Jagdale, also called M. M. Jagdale, played for Baroda, Central India and Holkar and later became a national selector. Sanjay Jagdale and his father form the only father and son pair of Indian national selectors who never played international cricket for India. His brother Ashok Jagdale also played domestic cricket.

As a player, Sanjay Jagdale was a right handed batter and right arm off break bowler. He represented Madhya Pradesh from the 1968-69 season to the 1982-83 season. He was a steady all-rounder rather than a star with the bat or ball. His long value to the game came after retirement in 1983, when he moved into coaching and talent spotting at the Cricket Club of Indore.

From Player to Selector and Administrator

Sanjay Jagdale built his reputation as a selector who could spot young talent and back it for a long time. In the early 1990s, the BCCI placed him on the junior selection committee. There he helped identify players such as V. V. S. Laxman, Murali Kartik, Hrishikesh Kanitkar, Sridharan Sriram and Naman Ojha. Test leg spinner Narendra Hirwani has often described Jagdale as his mentor and guide at the Cricket Club of Indore.

The BCCI is the Board of Control for Cricket in India. It is the national governing body for cricket in India, headquartered in Mumbai. Its senior selection committee picks the Indian team for Tests, One Day Internationals and Twenty20 Internationals. Jagdale served on this senior committee from Central Zone in two long phases. The first ran from October 2000 to September 2004. The second began in November 2005. During these years he worked with chairmen such as Chandu Borde, Brijesh Patel, Syed Kirmani, Kiran More and Dilip Vengsarkar. The BCCI also gave him team management duties. He was manager on the Sri Lanka tour in 2005 and manager for the 2007 World Cup in the West Indies.

Jagdale entered administration almost by accident. The authors note that he had little interest in administrative posts. He took charge of the MPCA after the cancelled India-Sri Lanka international match in Indore in 1997 forced a change in leadership. He later served as MPCA secretary and president. At the BCCI, he first became joint secretary and then secretary in August 2011. He resigned on 31 May 2013 along with treasurer Ajay Shirke in the wake of the Indian Premier League spot fixing controversy. As secretary, Jagdale pushed for better pitches, outfields and training of curators. Curators are the specialists who prepare and maintain cricket pitches. He also supported the development of the Holkar Stadium in Indore into a modern international venue.

Book Release by Sunil Gavaskar in Indore

The book launch took place in Indore on 11 October 2026. Former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar released the book before a gathering of players, coaches and administrators. Gavaskar said service to cricket is not limited to batting and fielding. He described Jagdale as a complete all-rounder off the field because he had served as player, coach, selector, manager and administrator. He called that record rare and worthy of praise.

Gavaskar brings special weight to such an event. He was born on 10 July 1949 in Mumbai and captained India in the late 1970s and 1980s. He was the first batter in Test history to cross 10,000 Test runs and finished with 34 Test centuries, a record at the time. His presence linked two careers that began together in school cricket.

Jagdale recalled that his friendship with Gavaskar started in 1965. They first played against each other in school cricket in the Cooch Behar Trophy. The Cooch Behar Trophy is the BCCI national tournament for under-19 boys. They later met in school, college, Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy and Indian Universities cricket, sometimes as teammates and sometimes as opponents. The Duleep Trophy is the BCCI domestic first-class competition played between zones. Jagdale described Gavaskar as an exceptional player in the same rare class as Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli.

Co-author Kiran Waikar explained the choice of title at the event. Jagdale talks about cricket through the day and focuses on how to improve the game and give better facilities to players. The book therefore presents his ideas on coaching, selection and administration in one place.

Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association and Holkar Stadium in Focus

The Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association, often shortened to MPCA, is the governing body for cricket in Madhya Pradesh. It is headquartered at the Holkar Stadium in Indore and is affiliated to the BCCI. The present MPCA took shape in 1956, though its roots go back to the Central India Cricket Association of 1932 and the Holkar Cricket Association of 1940 to 1955.

Indore has a deep cricket past. The princely state of Indore under the Holkar rulers supported players such as Col. C. K. Nayudu, who was India’s first Test captain, and Syed Mushtaq Ali, the first Indian to score a Test century on foreign soil. The Holkar team played in the Ranji Trophy from 1941-42 to 1954-55. The Ranji Trophy is the BCCI premier domestic first-class championship. Holkar reached ten finals in that period and won the title four times in 1945-46, 1947-48, 1950-51 and 1952-53.

Holkar Stadium carries that legacy forward. It was earlier known as the Maharani Usharaje Trust Cricket Ground. The MPCA renamed it as Holkar Stadium in 2010 to honour the Holkar dynasty. The stadium holds about 30,000 spectators and is owned and run by the MPCA. It hosted its first One Day International on 15 April 2006 between India and England. It hosted its first Test in October 2016 between India and New Zealand. Pavilions at the ground are named after C. K. Nayudu and Mushtaq Ali, while dressing rooms honour Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi and Rahul Dravid. Jagdale played a central role in rebuilding the venue in the late 1990s and 2000s into a modern international ground.

Cricket Biography Books in India

Books on cricketers form a steady shelf in Indian sports writing. They record personal journeys and also preserve the history of eras, tours and selection systems. The new Jagdale biography adds an administrator view to a shelf largely filled with player stories.

What Is the Name of Sunil Gavaskar Autobiography?

The main autobiography of Sunil Gavaskar is Sunny Days: An Autobiography, first published by Rupa in 1976. Gavaskar later wrote Idols in 1983, Runs n Ruins in 1984 and One Day Wonders in 1986, with the early Sunny Days remaining his best known book.

Sunny Days began as notes Gavaskar wrote while working with a cement company early in his career. It appeared when he was still a young Test star and became a long running bestseller in Indian sports publishing. Idols contains essays on 31 cricketers Gavaskar admired, including Gundappa Viswanath, Vivian Richards and Imran Khan. Runs n Ruins and One Day Wonders deal with the packed 1983 and 1984-85 seasons, including India’s 1983 World Cup win and the 1985 World Championship of Cricket triumph in Australia under Gavaskar’s captaincy.

A later landmark is Playing It My Way, the autobiography of Sachin Tendulkar published on 5 November 2014 and co-written with Boria Majumdar. Tendulkar made his Test debut at 16 in 1989, played for 24 years, scored 100 international centuries and received the Bharat Ratna in 2013. The book entered the Limca Book of Records as a bestselling adult hardback. It shows how player autobiographies can set sales and pre-order records in India.

Key Takeaways

• Sanjay Jagdale: Rag Rag Mein Cricket was released by Sunil Gavaskar in Indore on 11 October 2026.
• The book is authored by Kiran Waikar and Sunil Dudhale and traces Jagdale from player to coach, selector and administrator.
• Sanjay Jagdale played 53 first-class matches for Madhya Pradesh, scoring 2,077 runs and taking 85 wickets.
• Jagdale served as BCCI junior and senior selector and became BCCI secretary in August 2011, resigning on 31 May 2013.
• The Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association, headquartered at Holkar Stadium in Indore, was formed in its present form in 1956.
• Sunil Gavaskar’s best known autobiography is Sunny Days: An Autobiography, first published in 1976.