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Vijay Singh Madhavji Merchant , (born Vijay Madhavji Thackersey; 12 October 1911 – 27 October 1987) was an Indian cricketer. A right-hand batsman and occasional right-arm medium pace bowler, Merchant played first-class cricket for Bombay cricket team as well as 10 Test cricket for India between 1929 and 1951. Behind his limited Test appearances, he dominated Indian domestic cricket – his batting average of 71.64 is the second highest first-class average in history, behind only that of Don Bradman. He is regarded as the founder of the Bombay School of Batsmanship, that placed more importance on right technique, steely temperament, and conservative approach rather than free flow of the bat.
His international career included two tours of England upon which he scored over 800 runs. English cricketer C. B. Fry exclaimed "Let us paint him white and take him with us to Australia as an opener." His brother, Uday Merchant, also played first-class cricket.
Besides cricket, he was also associated with the Hindoostan Spinning & Weaving Mills (Thackersey Group) and was the Sheriff of Bombay in 1970.
Throughout his career, Merchant was involved in a rivalry with the other great Indian batsman of the era, Vijay Hazare, with each trying to better the scores of the other. In the 1943 Bombay Pentangular final against the Rest, Merchant bettered Hazare's tournament record score of 248, set in the previous match against the Muslims, with 250 not out. Hazare responded with a 309 out of a team total of 387 in the same match. Less than a month later, Merchant topped that by amassing 359 not out against Maharashtra in the Ranji Trophy, setting a then record for the highest score in Indian first-class cricket.
Merchant had a particularly successful England tour of 1946. Despite facing difficulty against swing bowling when the ball moved away after pitching on the leg stump, he scored 2,385 runs including seven centuries in the 41 innings he batted, at an average of 74.53. In his column, former cricketer Learie Constantine wrote, "... this (Merchant) world-beater so adapted himself to the circumstances that he produced cricket of the highest class, never refusing the challenge to score when the dice was not too heavily loaded against the side."
Merchant went on to become a cricket administrator, broadcaster, writer and national selector, and charitable advocate of the handicapped.
During his career, Merchant scored eleven double-centuries in first-class cricket, the most by an Indian batsman. The record stood until November 2017, when Cheteshwar Pujara scored his twelfth double-century batting for Saurashtra against Jharkhand in the 2017–18 Ranji Trophy.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India named its under-16 domestic cricket tournament Vijay Merchant Trophy in his honour.
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