Sweety S Suresh TN Ranji Finals Captain

A grounded personality unmoved by the highs and lows 

A Change Agent and an Unfancied Captain, he turned around the fortunes of TN cricket and led the state to two successive Ranji Finals and a National One Day Championship

Just under two decades ago, Tamil Nadu cricket witnessed a shake up when the selectors chose an unfancied captain who had played just three Ranji matches in the previous four years and was not even a certainty in the squad/playing XI. Within two matches that season, there was a ‘behind the scenes’ player revolt, something that was not completely a shock to him (interestingly just over a decade later, another player revolt, this time when he was the state selector, led to the sacking of the Coach, who had been the most influential person in his life). The captain survived that, managed players much bigger in stature, had to drop his ‘best friend’ in cricket on multiple occasions and led TN to two successive Ranji Trophy finals and a win in the All India One day tournament. Soon after the great turnaround, the captain was sacked and asked to fight for a place in the team. On both occasions (the appointment and the removal), the cricketer expressed very little emotion, a characteristic that’s been his way of life all through his cricketing life that has now lasted over three decades. Here is the story of probably the ‘Sweetest’ Captain in TN’s history.

Tennis Ball at Somasundaram Ground

Like most T Nagar cricketers of the 1980s, S Suresh, who resided in Coats Road, began his cricket at the Somasundaram ground playing tennis ball ‘test cricket’ for ‘YSCA’ Gurumurthy’s team. A good chunk of his free time was spent playing street cricket with his neighbour S Sikandar. Like most other cricketing teenagers of the time, he played all kinds of matches – tennis ball, blue star, school cricket and the TNCA league.

M.S. Gurumurthy, who took the teenaged Suresh on cricket tours and also included the 15 year old in his fourth division league team Eccentrics as a wicket keeper batsman, was the one who provided the early cricketing platform for Suresh. He remembers Suresh from those early days “He was such a nice boy, very obedient and sincere. When he spoke, he uttered words in a tone that was always sweet. His family was not particularly fond of him playing cricket all the time and wanted a shift in focus to academics.”

For a cricketer who was to go on to captain the TN Ranji team, he did not feature in any of the age group teams (U15/U17/U22) for the state. In fact, his cricket went largely unnoticed till he was out of his teens.

This writer played a full year alongside Suresh in 1990, a season when he struck his first half centuries in the TNCA league. He was the quiet boy in the team and rarely spoke on or off the field. In the first match of the season, opening the batting with just one over to play before lunch, he struck a six of the first ball and ended the over with another boundary. It indicated very early on his fearless instincts. 

Initiation into bowling

He moved from RKM to Guru Nanak school for his Class XI and XII where he played under the captaincy of current BCCI Umpire R Rajesh Kannan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2015/06/rajesh-kannan-bcci-board-umpire.html) who remembers initiating him into bowling “We had only four bowlers in our school team. I asked him to play the role of the 5th bowler through that year and that is how he moved from a wicket keeper to a medium pace bowler”.

‘Sweety’ - Forging a lifelong friendship

It was only when he joined Guru Nanak college did he begin to really work seriously on his game.Moved by the sweetness in his character he was called out for as ‘Sweety’ by his captain DJ Gokulakrishnan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2017/03/gokulakrishnan-j.html). The name struck a chord with the cricketing fraternity and has stood with him for the next three decades (very few cricketers now know him by his original name!!). It was during this period that he forged a lifelong friendship with Gokulakrishnan and sought his advice at important moments in his career. 

Rs.500 per match in second division

While at College, he was roped in by Chemplast’s future MD Vijay, son of N Sankar (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/11/jolly-rovers-n-sankar-75.html), for the second division team Kohinoor that he was managing in that phase. Suresh was taken aback when he was told that he would be paid Rs. 500 per match after signing up for Kohinoor. Initially, he refused to accept that payment for he thought he was playing for the love of the game. It was then that he understood the concept of ‘professional fee’ to play the game and considers it his first big moment in cricket "It was a ‘big deal’ for a college cricketer to be paid a 'match fee' in lower division cricket.

Broken Nose

He continued to be a bits and pieces player in the 2nd division as well as at college without making any major contribution. Kohinoor securing promotion that year paved the way for Suresh to make his debut in the first division in 1993, one that was marked by a nasty injury when he was struck on the nose while batting. 

It was Vijay Sankar who took Suresh to Plastic Surgeon Dr. Nirmala Subramaniam to perform the surgery on him (a year earlier, Vijay had stood by S Sharath when he met with a serious road accident). 

Vijay, who remembers Suresh as a ‘well behaved’ boy and a ‘nice fellow’, recalls his batting style from those two years at Kohinoor “He was very good against the fast bowlers and would bat confidently against the new ball but once the spinners came on, his stroke play was limited. Watching him bat years later against spinners, I found a ‘night and day’ change in his approach. He must have worked really hard to have adapted so well to the spinners later on.”

The First Interaction with VBC

It was in 1994 that he caught the eye of VB Chandrasekar while batting in a practice game for Guru Nanak College against India Cements that had taken up the college ground. Between 1994/95 and 2003/04, Suresh had five major interactions with VBC, at his home on Desikachari Road in Mylapore. The first of these, in the summer of 1994, was soon after his first year in first division with Kohinoor. While Suresh was set to be registered for Sridhar CC, a team run by India Cements, VBC (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/01/vb-chandrasekar.html) ‘announced’ to him that he would be playing for Vijay CC ( the 2nd of India Cements’ team) that had just been promoted to first division. Vijay CC was to be the ‘A’ team of India Cements that year and VBC asking him to sign up for that team made Suresh apprehensive of figuring in a star studded batting line up. In his ‘sweet’ way, he pleaded with VBC to sign up for ‘B’ team Sridhar CC but as was to happen in each of his subsequent meetings, VBC always had his way. 

Through the 1990s, Gokulakrishnan was the go to man for Suresh whenever he was in a dilemma. Soon after VBC’s announcement, he went that late evening to Gokulakrishnan’s house to express his predicament. It was based on Gokulakrishnan’s advice that Suresh signed up for Vijay CC. 

An unlikely Corporate Job

When Kohinoor was relegated back into the second division, Suresh was called in by IOB’s dashing opener S. Sivakumar for a job at the bank. Suresh had a family shop on Pondy Bazaar road and the family’s plan was for him to run the shop. They had not liked him pursuing cricket in his teenage years and were keen for him to manage the family business.

Hence when a job offer came from IOB, he was not particularly interested. However, when VBC directed him to take up the employment at India Cements citing opportunities to play in limited over tourneys that were open only for employees (The Hindu Trophy and the like), Suresh, in addition to signing up in the league for Vijay CC, quite reluctantly took up employment with India Cements, marking the beginning of a long association with them that has now lasted over 25years.

With VBC banned for two matches at the start of the season, Suresh opened the batting only to fail on both the occasions. When VBC came back, Suresh original apprehensions came true and he had to sit out the next four matches. An unexpected opportunity came his way in the 7th match of the season and he grabbed it with both hands. It was to be the turning point in his first division career. Karunamurthy non availability opened the doors for Suresh and answered with a classy 65 opening the batting. 

In those first two years at India Cements, he turned around his approach against spinners "While the official nets would start at 3pm, I came an hour ahead and batted against P Rajesh's off spin. That is how I improved my skills against spin", he recalls on the long hours spent at the nets specifically on his reportoire of strokes against the spinners.

In 1996-97, he scored three hundreds in the KSCA trophy in Bangalore against big named national teams. He considers the century against Javagal Srinath on a challenging wicket in that tourney as his best knock in cricket. In the Arlem Trophy in Goa, he picked up four wickets including WV Raman and M Senthilnathan and scored a half century in the chase. He followed that with another good knock against Chemplast. Having been apprehensive at the start of his India Cements career, match winning all round performances in these one day tournaments gave him the confidence and he never looked back for India Cements after that. 

 

The 2nd Big Moment with VBC – To Goa for his Ranji debut

Following his stellar role in these tournaments, VBC called him home for the 2nd big cricketing ‘announcement’ (VBC took all his big decisions on the Verandah of his house!!!). In that meeting, he asked Suresh to join him in Goa for the Ranji season ( VB had moved to Goa the previous year taking along with him J Gokulakrishnan). It was a completely unexpected call and for the second time running, Suresh expressed his apprehension at him matching up to Ranji Standards. VBC once again instilled the confidence in him of his ‘hidden’ abilities and made the decision for Suresh and he made his way to Panjim along with Gokulakrishnan, who had already played a year for Goa the previous season. 

Highest Rungetter for Goa

He considers his engagement with VBC as being transformational in his life “It was a great experience to open with VB. To watch him captain on the field was a great learning- his thought process, the bowling changes, the field setting for different batsmen. His guidance in that phase was transformational. He brought the best out of me and helped me play to my potential.”

In his debut season in Ranji Trophy cricket, Suresh emerged the highest run getter for Goa, quite a creditable achievement for someone who had least expected to play Ranji cricket. His first big contribution in Ranji Trophy came against Andhra when he picked up 6wickets in the match and helped his team chase down a target with an unbeaten 80. But he rates the half century and a century (carrying the bat) against Tamil Nadu in a losing cause as the most satisfying performance of the year.

Topping the batting charts in a low year in Ranji for Goa was personally satisfying for Suresh as was the three successive half centuries in the one day tourney but his cricketing life witnessed another unexpected turn, this time for the worse with him having to lose a year of Ranji cricket. VBC, in yet another of his battles, fell out of favour with the Goan authorities and decided to head back to Madras bringing to end his first class career. Unfortunately, he also brought along the two youngsters, Gokulakrishnan and Suresh, back with him.

TNCA introduces a sudden Cool Off Period!!!

When they returned, much to their shock, the TA Sekar (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2013/08/ta-sekar-fastest-indian-bowler-of-1980s.html?m=0) led Selection committee along with the TNCA decided on a one year cooling off period for those who played for another state the previous year and thus both of them had to sit out the entire year (interestingly, when MRF’s Ashish Kapoor came back the next year after his outing with Punjab, the same TA Sekar led panel and the TNCA revoked the one year cooling off and Aashish Kapoor played for TN immediately). After having enjoyed a successful debut season, it was a harsh home coming for Suresh and his first introduction to the wagaries of the TNCA. For the next 3years, Suresh remained on the fringe and continued to play only the odd game for TN.

From Obscurity to The TN Captaincy

In the summer of 2000, VBC announced the decision to hand him the captaincy of the India Cements team. There were other star performers in the team but VBC saw a captaincy spark in Suresh and appointed him as the captain for the year. India Cements won one day tournaments under him including the KSCA for the first time after many years. Soon after, he was made the captain of the TNCA XI for the Buchi Babu tourney and the team won that as well with Suresh scoring a century in each innings in the Semi Final.

As the Chairman of Selectors, VBC handed to him the biggest news of his life. He ‘announced’ to him that he was suggesting his name as the captain of the TN team that year. TN was a star studded batting lineup at that time with three international players (Sriram, Ramesh and Badani) and Sharath, who has amassed runs for TN over the previous decade. While TN had had a mixed decade in the 1990s reaching the finals only twice and Captaincy had not been a strong point in the state with several captains have experienced the hot seat, Suresh himself had not been a regular in the team since his debut for Goa and had played only 3 Ranji Matches for TN in the previous 4 years. 

Suresh remembers that meeting at VBC’s home in Mylapore “I clearly told him that I did not want the job as there were bigger stars in the team but with him it was always a one way monologue. He had made up his mind and no one could reject his call. He reasoned out that others were not even captaining their league teams regularly and were also likely to be away on international duty that season.”

The news sent shock waves in the TN cricketing fraternity. TN middle order batsman from the 1980s PC Prakash was part of that Selection Committee and explains the thought process behind the decision “We needed a strong captain to bring the team together and handle big names. Sweety was a selfless cricketer and always placed the team interest ahead of him. He was non controversial as well. We thought he would fit that role well. Also, the fact that VBC had made him the captain of the India Cements team earlier and worked with him closely meant there was a comfort factor for him as the Chariman.”

While Suresh was not a regular member of the team in previous years, the fact that he was made the captain for 2002-03 meant a batting spot had been taken up. Gokulakrishnan’s brother was a casualty that year. In successive seasons in 2000-01 and 01-02, JR Madanagopal (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/10/madanagopal-j.html?m=0) was Tamil Nadu’s highest run scorer in one day cricket and performed well in Ranji Trophy in the limited opportunities that he got. In both the years, he was among the top 6 in the country in domestic one day cricket in India out beating most of the reputed names in the state. And yet he was not picked for the  entire one day league phase in 2002/03.

A 'Players Revolt' in the offing

After TN’s narrow first innings lead against Baroda in the season opener (thanks to the late half century partnership between Sharath and Gokulakrishnan), the team just about survived in its 2nd match against UP with the last pair batting out a tense last 15minutes on the final evening (it was a year when the zonal format was discarded in the Ranji Trophy).

After the shaky start to the season and with Suresh not performing with the bat, there was an upheaval with the stars in the team unhappy with the new captain. To complicate things further, the coach of the team (B Arun, then of Chemplast) did not see eye to eye with Chairman VBC. Back room meetings were being organised to remove him from the captaincy. Suresh remembers this as a very challenging phase in his life and he just about hung in there “I did not want the captaincy fearing exactly this and it happened sooner than expected. There was a huge pressure on me to perform both as a batsman as well as to get the team to perform. There was also pressure building up on VB for it was he who backed me as a captain. Luckily, we had a break for the one-dayers after the first two Ranji matches and that was the turning point in the season and we never looked back after that.”

TN fared exceedingly well in the shorter format and qualified for the nationals. Suresh himself scored 82 against a strong Karnataka side comprising Kumble and Prasad.  With the  win in the all India One dayers under his belt and the confidence of a tournament victory behind him, Suresh hit a bit of personal form with the bat in the Ranji scoring two half centuries and a century following the resumption of the season. Overall, he scored close to 450runs in a season. 

His refreshing memories of that year was the performance of L Balaji “When your new ball bowler takes that many number of five wicket hauls in a single season, the team will obviously get a boost. Balaji played a big role in our reaching the final.”

Looking back, he sees that final as one of the best opportunities for TN to win the Ranji once again “After having bowled out Bombay cheap, we were batting really well but just one bad session cost us the opportunity of a big first innings lead. We should have sealed the match in the first innings.”

Un‘Sweet’ Decisions

The year itself was not without selection controversies. In one of the matches, there was a discord between the Chairman of Selectors and the Coach on the selection of the XI with Suresh caught in the middle of the tangle. With the Umpires and the opposition captain waiting for the toss, the composition was still being finalised. It was probably the only time in his career that the 'Sweetness went out of Suresh' as he made his way into the ground with 10 players written in the list and wrote the 11th player just near the toss area.

In the course of the year, he also had to do the unthinkable of dropping Gokulakrishnan, his college captain and his closest friend of over a decade, more than once. He calls it as the toughest decision of his cricketing career.

By the time the next season arrived, coach Arun was keen on bringing in youngsters into the team and the seniors were being eased out. In the Buchi Babu, he was relegated to the captaincy of TNCA Presidents XI but Suresh led that team to victory as well.  With the new model for the season the pressure of ‘stars’ around him eased a bit for Suresh in the 2003/04 Ranji tourney. The team performed well once again as a unit under Suresh and the team once again reached the final but was soundly thrashed by Bombay. After the morale boosting tournament win the previous year, TN slid in the national one day championship after topping the zone.

Two Successful Years but loses Captaincy!!!

It had been two glorious and unprecedented years – two successive Ranji finals and one national one day tourney win and a Zonal One day win - for TN under Suresh. But his personal batting form dropped drastically in the 2nd season in Ranji where he managed only 300runs in 15innings, though he performed well in the one dayers, once again. Despite TN reaching two successive Ranji finals, he was dropped from the captaincy for the coming season. PC Prakash justifies that decision of the selection committee “Our appointment, in 2002, of Suresh was vindicated by TN reaching the Ranji finals twice in a row. At the end of the 2nd year, we felt that the captaincy was affecting his batting. We wanted him to focus on his batting and bowling.”

In a cricketing engagement that lasted exactly a decade having started in the summer of 1994, it had all been positive news thus far. For the first time, that summer of 2004, VBC called him home to hand him news that did not sound sweet "He told me that the team was moving on, I was being removed from Captaincy and that I would have to earn my place in the squad. When I said Okay, he was stunned and asked if I did not want to know the reason. I said No!!!” 

That is how Suresh has been all his life. He has easily absorbed the highs and lows taking everything in his stride without too much excitement or depression. Questions will forever be asked if his captaincy was the differentiator those two years that led to TN’s success.

Peter Roebuck (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2011/11/peter-roebuck-my-favourite-cricket.html) in his book writes on Brian Rose’s captaincy for Somerset contributing to the team’s success that year “Captaincy is not as straightforward an occupation as it seems. He had to keep the side together (for months) while surviving the inevitable setbacks, insecurities and differences and still performing upon the field, for a struggling captain swiftly loses his authority.”

   Peter Roebuck - The ABC Commentary Team in Madras - 2001

Suresh was caught in the same scenario when he took over as captain but in the same way as Rose did for Somerset in 1979, Suresh managed to take TN all the way through, winning the national one day tourney before falling in the final hurdle in the Ranji (Somerset too won the one day tourney that year). It was an incredible achievement for this quiet cricketer who at the beginning of the season may not have had his place, secure, in the team. Under his captaincy, the fortunes of TN were certainly turned around after a barren run in the years preceding. 

Suresh himself looks back at those two years as the most challenging as well as the most exciting days of his cricket career “Both years presented different sets of challenges to me. While the first year was challenging because of the presence of a lot of seniors, the second one had several newcomers in the team. It was a period when my relationship with the closest of friends was strained. It was a delicate situation for me and I was not really used to being in those situations, previously. But I became tougher and stronger, mentally.  Also, I became a bit more of an extrovert in that phase.”

Gurumurthy is delighted that his ward has not changed one bit from the tennis ball days of the 1980s “His perseverance helped him reach the top in Tamil Nadu. Well over three decades after he first played for me, his conduct still remains the same – truly top class. It is the strength of the personality that has really stood out with him. He has not forgotten those early cricketing days and still talks to me in the same sweet way he did as a young RKM school boy. ”

Most who have interacted with him over the last 30 years would endorse that view of Gurumurthy.

Suresh played the last three years of his Ranji cricket as professional for Kerala (two years with S Ramesh) and Assam (a year with Sharath and Ramesh) before hanging his boots. (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2014/11/sadhagopan-ramesh.html) 

As a teenager, Suresh’s thoughts were on playing cricket for the love of the game and to take care of the family shop. Playing Ranji cricket was not something he had set his eyes on. But once he came under the influence of VB Chandrasekar, his life took a transformative turn. Cricket became not just an integral part of everyday life but also a very successful one. He played over 40 first class matches and achieved what no other TN captain of his generation has – that of leading the state to two successive finals and the One Day victory. More importantly, he has come through unscathed in cricket over a long three decades association.

On top of all these, the one personality trait that has stood out shining all through his life has been that Somasetty Suresh has remained grounded amidst all the cricketing success that saw him rise to the State Captaincy, a Coach and State Selector, a BCCI Match Referee, and now the Chairman of Cricket Advisory Committee of the TNCA (appointed on Nov 22, 24 hours after this story was put out).

Suresh will forever be the 'Sweetest' TN Captain.