Saad Bin Jung

Saad Bin Jung was born into a branch of the Paigah family of Hyderabad state, the son of Bashir Yar Jung and his wife Saleha Begum. The Paigah family was one of the highest feudal landowning families of Hyderabad. However, the family was also very large, and Bashir Yar Jung was the seventh son of a very junior branch of the family. Saad's mother, Saleha Sultan, was the eldest daughter of Iftikhar Ali Khan Pataudi, Nawab of Pataudi State, and sister of Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. Both nawabs, known respectively as "Pataudi Senior" and "Pataudi Junior", were distinguished cricketers who captained the Indian Test team.

He grew up in Hyderabad, where he attended Hyderabad Public School and Nizam College.[1]

After playing schools cricket in the Cooch Behar Trophy, Saad Bin Jung was selected just after his 18th birthday to play his first-class debut match for India Under-22s against the touring West Indians in November 1978. Opening the batting, he made 58, batting "most impressively, using the hook and cover-drive to advantage" against the pace attack of Sylvester Clarke, Malcolm Marshall and Vanburn Holder.[2] Two weeks later, also against the West Indians, he made 113 for South Zone, batting at number three, out of a team total of 283 for 8 declared.[3] Wisden declared that he "batted with calm assurance" and held out "promise of playing Test cricket in the future".[4]

He was selected for an Indian Board President's XI against the West Indians later in the season, and also against the Pakistan touring team early the next season, but he achieved little in the first match and the second was ruined by rain and he did not bat. He also achieved little in two Duleep Trophy matches for South Zone in 1979-80. His only innings of note in 1979-80 was 136 not out in seven hours, batting at number five for Hyderabad against Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy, the only century in a drawn match.[5]

After two matches in 1980-81 he contracted an illness which led to a long period of hospitalisation.[6] After recovery, disenchanted with cricket in Hyderabad,[7] he played the 1983-84 season with Haryana, scoring 256 runs at an average of 32.00 in six matches, helping Haryana to reach the Ranji Trophy semi-finals.[8] He then retired from cricket at the age of 23.

Saad and his wife Sangeeta now run eco-resorts on the banks of the Kabini River in Karnataka. They started their conservation career at Bandipur National Park in Karnataka in 1992. The Jungs owned a hunting lodge in Bandipur which Sangeeta decided to convert into an eco-resort. The Bandipur lodge was then bought by Club Mahindra. As Bandipur turned commercial, the Jungs purchased a piece of land near the Kabini backwaters in 1993. Today their son Shaaz Jung runs the eco-tourism resort with African-style tents and local cuisine. They aim to reconcile the needs of the local people with the needs of conservation. They have also been taking safari tours to Africa since 1995.[9][10]

He has written three books, all with conservation themes: Wild Tales from the Wild, about the people and wildlife of the Mangala valley in Karnataka; Subhan and I: My Adventure with the Angling Legend of India, about angling for mahseer in the Cauvery River; and a novel, Matabele Dawn, a thriller set in Africa and India.

He and his wife live in Indiranagar, an eastern suburb of Bangalore.[11]

• Saad Jung at CricketArchive
• Saad Jung at Cricinfo
• "Hyderabad, a love story" by Saad Bin Jung