Greater than a thousand runs arrived in a single Ranji Trophy season, at a median above 100. 5 centuries got here with them, together with a mammoth 242, as bowlers across the home circuit found that getting this Baroda middle-order batter out had turn into one of many hardest assignments in Indian cricket. By the top of 1998-99, an India call-up not felt like a reward. It felt inevitable.
Worldwide cricket, nonetheless, would show far much less beneficiant. The batter who had piled up 1,037 Ranji Trophy runs at 103.70 would ultimately play solely 10 ODIs for India. There can be no Take a look at cap, no worldwide fifty and barely sufficient time to ascertain himself earlier than the selectors moved on. His finest ODI rating would stay 39, but even that innings got here with India collapsing round him towards Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis at Perth.
What adopted over the following quarter of a century made these 10 matches nearly a footnote. There was a Ranji Trophy triumph as captain, greater than 9,000 first-class runs, retirement and comeback, an arrest in a case carrying severe human-trafficking allegations, a near-fatal highway accident that left his household scuffling with huge medical payments, repeated brushes with Gujarat’s prohibition legal guidelines and, in 2026, one other arrest after a late-night automobile crash.
The cricketer was Jacob Martin, one of many extra uncommon forgotten names from India’s turn-of-the-century era.
A home profession far greater than 10 ODIs
Martin’s first-class profession had really began with a glimpse of a really totally different cricketer. On debut for Baroda within the 1991-92 Ranji Trophy, he not solely scored a half-century but in addition took 5 wickets in an innings. Bowling would quickly disappear nearly fully from his recreation — he completed with solely 10 first-class wickets — whereas batting grew to become the rationale he stayed round for almost twenty years.
By the point he was completed, Martin had gathered 9,192 first-class runs from 138 matches at a median of 46.65, with 23 centuries and 47 fifties. His peak got here in 1998-99, when scores resembling 108, 103 not out, 177 not out, 242 and 100 not out carried him past 1,000 Ranji runs for the season, a landmark achieved by solely a handful of gamers on the time.
India lastly picked him for the 1999 sequence towards the West Indies in Toronto. His debut, on September 11, contained a bit of trivia that grew to become extra placing with each passing yr: Chris Gayle made his ODI debut for the West Indies in the identical match. Gayle would go on to turn into probably the most recognisable cricketers of his era. Martin’s worldwide profession can be over after 10 appearances.
He did not even get to bat on debut, though he contributed with a catch. His alternatives over the following two years remained sporadic. The closest factor to a defining worldwide innings got here towards Pakistan at Perth in January 2000, the place India’s celebrated prime order was torn aside.
Sachin Tendulkar made 17, Sourav Ganguly 1, Rahul Dravid 3, and VVS Laxman 1. India slipped to 24/4 after which 33/5, leaving Martin to attempt to survive an assault led by Wasim and Waqar. His 39 from 71 balls was hardly glamorous, however within the circumstances it represented substantial resistance. It nonetheless remained his highest rating for India.
Martin’s ultimate worldwide innings got here towards Kenya in October 2001, when he made 36. Ten ODIs had produced 158 runs at 22.57. India by no means referred to as once more.
The captain who introduced Baroda again
The rejection didn’t cease Martin from being a significant determine in home cricket. The truth is, one in all his most interesting achievements got here across the identical interval as his India profession was disappearing. As Baroda captain in 2000-01, Martin led the aspect into its first Ranji Trophy ultimate in additional than 4 many years. The ultimate towards Railways seemed to be slipping away when Baroda conceded a 151-run first-innings lead. Martin himself had made a duck within the first innings.
His response within the second was very totally different. Satyajit Parab struck 141 whereas Martin stayed unbeaten on 87 from 225 balls, dragging Baroda again into the competition and setting Railways 223. Zaheer Khan then ripped by way of the chase with 5 wickets as Railways had been bowled out for 201. Baroda received by 21 runs and accomplished probably the most dramatic Ranji Trophy ultimate turnarounds of that period. Martin remained deeply embedded in home cricket even after India had moved on. He ultimately introduced his retirement in 2007, solely to reverse the choice months later as a result of he felt he had stopped too shortly. His profession lastly stretched into 2009, with Railways and Assam additionally showing on his home résumé. The cricketing story, nonetheless, would quickly be overshadowed.
Arrest, a 22-year case and eventual acquittal
An investigation courting again to 2004 alleged {that a} man had been illegally taken to Britain whereas posing as a member of a cricket group. Martin’s title grew to become linked to the case by way of an alleged affiliation with a cricket membership, and investigators accused him of involvement within the association. He denied wrongdoing.
After years of authorized proceedings, Martin was arrested in 2011. The case adopted him for greater than twenty years and remained one of many first issues connected to his title each time his post-cricket life was mentioned. Martin later stated the episode additionally price him his job with the Railways.
However the story modified dramatically in 2026. On June 11, a Delhi courtroom acquitted Martin, discovering that the prosecution had didn’t show the allegations towards him. The courtroom discovered no established cash path exhibiting that Martin had obtained cost, no proof that he owned the membership on the centre of the allegations and no ample proof connecting him to the brokers accused of arranging a counterfeit immigration stamp. After greater than 20 years, one of many darkest chapters connected to his public fame ended with no conviction.
Additionally Learn: Debuted with Tendulkar, bone tumour ended career at 28: Indian pacer who played one Test later fought severe depression
The accident that introduced cricket again round him
Lengthy earlier than that acquittal, Martin had confronted one other battle altogether. In December 2018, a severe highway accident in Vadodara left him with main accidents to his lungs and liver. His situation grew to become important sufficient for him to spend an prolonged interval on ventilator help, whereas the mounting hospital bills positioned his household underneath huge monetary strain.
This time, Indian cricket rallied round him. The BCCI and Baroda Cricket Affiliation offered monetary help. Chennai Super Kings contributed, whereas former teammates and cricketers together with Sourav Ganguly, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra supplied assist. Krunal Pandya’s gesture became notably memorable: he reportedly despatched a clean cheque with directions that no matter quantity was required might be crammed in.
Martin survived, ultimately got here off the ventilator and moved out of important care. It was a unprecedented reversal for a person whose relationship with Indian cricket had largely light from public view. But controversy didn’t disappear fully. Martin had beforehand confronted alcohol-related police motion in Gujarat, together with a 2013 case through which he and others had been arrested after a gathering and later examined optimistic for alcohol consumption underneath the state’s prohibition legal guidelines.
Then, in January 2026, his title returned to the police data. Martin was arrested after the SUV he was driving struck three parked automobiles in Vadodara’s Akota space throughout the early hours. Police alleged that he appeared intoxicated and booked him for offences referring to rash and drunken driving in addition to prohibition-law violations. No accidents had been reported, and he was later launched on bail. Preliminary reviews stated medical take a look at outcomes had been awaited, so the incident stays an allegation reasonably than a drunk-driving conviction.
It’s a unusual place for a global cricket story to reach. Greater than three many years after that five-wicket first-class debut, Jacob Martin’s profession stays tough to cut back to at least one label. He was the batter who averaged greater than 100 throughout a Ranji season, the captain who helped Baroda overturn a 151-run deficit to turn into champions and the India participant whose alternative vanished after solely 10 ODIs.
All the things that got here later made the story messier, darker and way more human. For a era that hardly remembers the title, these 158 worldwide runs inform nearly nothing in regards to the cricketer — or the life — that existed round them.
