Michael Dalvi Gopalan Trophy Salem

A Century that inspired a Salem School Boy 

                              

In February 1975, it was Tamil Nadu's turn to host the annual Prestigious Gopalan Trophy match against Ceylon. That year the match was played in Salem. S Vasudevan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/06/vasudevan-tn-ranji-trophy-retirement.html), who went on to captain TN to a Ranji Trophy Triumph over a dozen years later and The Hindu's K Balaji made their state debut in this match. An enthusiastic 12year old school boy TV Jayaraman was excited to watch top class cricketers competing against each other. 

Ceylon was still a few years away from gaining test status (this match was played just ahead of the Inaugural World Cup and many of these players were to play in inaugural edition) but it was a very strong team comprising of Duleep Mendis, Roy Dias (later he was to play two exciting knocks in the one off test at Chepauk in 1982- his 2nd innings knock would still rank as one of the best test knocks seen at Chepauk), Anura Ranasinghe (he was an aggressive batsman who went to South Africa on a rebel tour and was banned from Test Cricket) and Siddath Wettimuny. And they came up against the likes of TN's hat trick man B Kalyanasundaram ( who had taken a famouse hat trick against Bombay just a couple of years earlier) - https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2011/08/kalli-b-kalyanasundaram.html - and V Krishnaswamy, who opened through that decade for TN (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/08/krishnaswamy-v.html) and is now the Treasurer of the ICA ( Indian Cricketers Association).

The Ramakrishna Sarada Vidyalaya school boy sat through all three days of the match that proved to be a life defining moment for him. He watched in awe Venkataraghavan’s extra ordinary spell on the opening day as his 7wicket haul helped bowl out Ceylon for a paltry 150 odd. Interestingly both the debutants performed creditably that match - Vasudevan picking up 5 wickets in the match and Balaji notching up a score in the 30s.

But it was one of the all time great knocks by a TN bat on day 2 that inspired the young boy to take to sport. Earlier this decade, almost 40years later, he was still a very active sportsman at the Mylapore Club and an inspiration for many budding sporting talent at the club. 

In the dozen years of his life till then, Jayaraman had not seen such a blistering batting display and the innings immediately transformed him and took him into the sporting world. And he was to be involved in active sport for the next 40 years till his untimely death a few years ago.

Michael Dalvi was up against a good fast bowler in Dennis Chanmugam and the spin twins of Lalith Kaluperuma and D’Silva (both of whom played test cricket for Sri Lanka) on a challenging wicket. In a brilliant counter attacking display, Dalvi smashed 179 and was involved in a big partnership with the stylish TE Srinivasan, who five years later went on to play for India. It was to remain his highest ever score in first class cricket. It left the Lankans stunned but the knock had created a new sportsman. 

Dalvi's Knocks inpires the school boy

The three days had changed his life. In a chat with this writer in 2015, Jayarman, then 52, said that Dalvi's scintillating innings inspired him to take to cricket 'I went back after the match and took to cricket seriously captaining the school team in Salem for three years."

He decided to head to Madras for his graduation and joined Guru Nanak College on the basis of his cricket certificates. However, a strong college team that had that decade included S Madhavan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2018/11/rbi-madhavan-leg-spinner.html), NP Madhavan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/05/np-madhavan.html) and Ravi Mishra meant he could not break through into the college cricket team.

Represents University Team in TT

He remembers those years from his college days "When I could not make it to the college cricket team, the innings of Dalvi flashed through my mind. I wanted to be a sportsman and changed sport. I took to Table Tennis."

Within a year he was in the college Table Tennis team and represented the University. Very soon he added Badminton to his sporting repertoire, one that continued into his 50s.

An inspiration at the Mylapore Club 

Almost 40 years after this Gopalan Trophy match, he was part of the Mylapore Club TT team that bagged the runners up trophy in the 1st inter club TT tourney organised by Madras Gymkhana Club. He also reached the finals of a doubles shuttle tournament organised by MRC. Aged 52, he sent a diving winner at the shuttle court drawing big applause from everyone notwithstanding the fact that he violated the Mylapore Club rule of ‘Don’t dive on the shuttle court' ( may be he remembered a dive of Michael Dalvi from that match in Salem and wanted to recreate that in the Shuttle Court). 

No wonder, Jayaraman was an inspiration to most of the Mylapore Club sportsmen and women, especially the youngsters. And for that, he, forever, thanked Michael Dalvi for inspiring him to take to sport.

(When this writer was the Editor of the Mylapore Club Magazine, Jayaraman contributed to stories on dharmic way of life handing out messages to children on the way to live life. He was brilliant at throwing up 'Puzzling' questions and did that all the time at the shuttle court and at weddings and family functions. Unfortunately, a sudden heart attack took away the life of Jayaraman in a flash a few years ago) 

A version of this story featured in the Mylapore Club Magazine in 2015