Pai was the first Indian cricketer to score a century on his first-class debut, playing for the Hindus against the Europeans in the Bombay Presidency game in 1906.
In a career spanning 15 years, he played a total of 22 first-class matches scoring 640 runs before retiring as a captain of the Hindus cricket team in 1920.
Pai was born on 21 June 1883 in Bombay, in what was then British India into a Gaud Saraswat Brahmin family.
[4][5] Pai was elevated to the captaincy of the Hindus during the 1912–13 season, with some reports indicating that the decision might have been motivated by his Brahmanical caste.
In a speech while receiving an honour from the Gaud Saraswat Brahmin Mitra Mandal, he acknowledged that the captaincy title had to belong to Palwankar Baloo, who was much more experienced and senior than he was.
The Europeans lodged a protest, with Greig writing a letter to the Bombay Gymkhana calling Pai's propriety into question.
The Gymkhana sided with Pai, calling the army major's attack "entirely opposed to the interests of sport and ... calculated to create general unpleasantness".