1970s Madras Cricketers Meet MCC

Over 50 cricketers from the 1970s came together on Monday evening at the MCC to share and recount the glorious cricketing days from that decade

TN's perpetual 12th man from the 1970s PR Ramakrishnan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2021/10/pr-ramakrishnan-coimbatore-cricketer.html), now a leading advocate in Coimbatore, was SM Krishnakumar’s favourite cricket captain. SMK played under Ramki for Madras University a year before he himself captained and led the team to the Rohinton Baria triumph in Jan 1976. SMK told this writer on Sunday morning that he was all excited to meet his captain after almost 50 years. The two shared a special rapport when they played together in the 1970s. Coincidentally, both were on the verge of making their debut for TN but did not get to play for the state and quit serious cricket in their mid 20s and moved into a corporate career – PRR as an advocate and SMK as a Banker.

SMK was delighted to meet his captain, who had flown in from Coimbatore over the weekend, twice on successive days. On Sunday evening, the two met as part of the 50year celebrations of the Rohinton Baria victory in 1973 under Sushil Haridas and on Monday evening, it was the coming together of cricketers from the 1970s that SMK organised at the MCC, Chepauk.

The LMW plan fails, a new corporate opportunity opens up

SMK’s colleague at IOB in the late 1970s NP Madhavan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/05/np-madhavan.html?m=1) had made the reverse move in 1982 quitting the bank and moving to Udumalpet where he joined SVPB, a group where he has been serving for over four decades, now as the VP. He was delighted to meet his old mate from Chengalpet S Balaji with whom he shared some interesting old cricketing memories.  In 1982, the two of them, who had played together in the inter districts tourneys, were exploring the possibility of playing for auto major LMW in Coimbatore.  They went to the company headquarters on the Mettupalayam highway and held discussions but the financial terms did not work out with the hattrick man of TN cricket B Kalyanasundaram (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2011/08/kalli-b-kalyanasundaram.html) who was leading the cricket recruitment at LMW at that time. Interestingly, Kalli, now a director at CSK and a talent scout, too was present on the evening having driven down from Pondicherry where he has been residing for the last few years.

As luck would have it, within the next few months Madhavan was roped in by Soundararajan of SVPB, Udumalpet (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2018/06/svpb-udumalpet-soundararajan.html) and Balaji joined the Railways. The two had been thick of friends in that phase in the late 1970s/early 80s and they enjoyed this Monday evening catching up on their old cricketing moments and the victories they had forged playing together.

The Threesome at the top of the order

There was intense competition for the opening spot in the TN Ranji squad in the 1970s. IOB’s cricket mentor V Krishnaswamy (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/08/krishnaswamy-v.html) was a regular opener for TN in that phase. He shifted base a few years back to Bangalore and made his way to Madras to be part of both the meetings - on Sunday and Monday evening. His batting partner that decade P Ramesh worked at SPIC for several years before shifting base to Hyderabad. He was excited to meet V Sivaramakrishnan, the third of that set of openers and recollect the good old cricketing years in the 1970s. 

In the last conversation Ramesh had with this writer, he had expressed the desire for the TNCA to revive the annual Buchi Babu tournament that was held in memory of his great grandfather. On Monday evening, he recalled that conversation and was visibly delighted that the tournament had been revived this season. 

All eyes turn to Venkataraghavan

The cynosure of all eyes on this evening was the legendary S Venkataraghavan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/04/venkataraghavan75.html). As soon as he entered the hall, the entire attention shifted to him as cricketers from that era went up to him to greet him and enquire about his health. VV Kumar, in his address, asked Venkat if he remembered his first Gopalan Trophy match in 1965-66 in Madras when the duo picked up 14 wickets. Interestingly, the man sitting next to Venkat through the evening AG Satvinder Singh top scored for Madras with a knock of 89.

VV Kumar also reminded those present of the commitment of his spin colleague “I still remember Venkat catching Doug Walters (who had scored a century) of the last ball of the day off Bedi at the Chennai test in 1969. From ball one to the last ball of the day, Venkat remained alert and as a close in fielder he was always looking for that edge to come to him.” 

Another batsman who missed out on playing for the state in the 1970s alongside PR Ramakrishnan and SM Krishnakumar was also present on the evening. S Kedarnath (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2021/06/kedarnath-s-opener-from-1970s.html) played many a brilliant knock for SBI in a cricket career that spanned over 15 years for the Bank but like Ramki he too could not breakthrough into the strong top order batting line up of the 1970s despite a string of consistent scores!!! During that entire phase with SBI, Kedarnath was also the star off the field with his mimicry of fellow cricketers such as VV Kumar and R Chandrasekar that sent his teammates into uncontrollable laughter. It may have been a good idea for the organisers to have got Kedar to relive some of those magical mimicry dialogues of VV Kumar from the 1970s.

Kedar and PRR - Ranji debut proved elusive despite creditable performances

SMK’s MCC school mates PS Moses and Bharath Reddy too were present as was The Hindu’s K Balaji(https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/09/a-blossoming-cricket-career-was-cut.html?m=1) who played together (with SMK) at the city / state schools and University level in the 1970s.

Batsmen hopped at the crease when this man ran in to bowl

Sunil Haridas is now based out of Coimbatore where he runs an auto ancillary engineering unit. His Pachaiappas College Captain SR Prakash, who later joined ICF, reminded him of the way he made the best of batsman in the city dance around the crease with his pace. But quickly Sunil reminded Prakash that the two of them he found most difficult to dislodge were the  Viveka openers - Kicha and V Shiv - and they for most part frustrated the opposition new ball bowlers by amassing runs in that phase in almost every match. 

His brother and the captain of the Madras University team that won the Rohinton Baria tournament in 1973, Sushil Haridas was also present on the evening as the players took him back to that glorious year of triumph.

SR Prakash (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2023/06/sr-prakash-icf-pachaiappas-cat-lover.html) reminded Kalli of the motivational words he had shared at the BS Nets “I was a youngster trying to make my mark in cricket. Kalli was already a star bowler in Ranji cricket. He would bowl to me at his full pace and challenge me to not get out in the nets. It is five decades now but his encouragement at the nets remains fresh in my memory and served as an inspiration for me to do well.”

Satvinder Singh (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2021/04/satvinder-singh75.html) recalled the decade of the 1970s as one when inter collegiate matches and the first division matches attracted huge crowds and Ranji matches were played in front of crowd of over 20000. It was great motivation for the players to be competing in front of such big crowd. Also, he recounted as to how cricket was the one thing that brought people together “It is so energising now at this age to meet and chat up with so many of the cricketers who had played together five decades ago.”

He took the audience back to that memorable semi final victory in Pune against Maharashtra in 1973 when VV Kumar, Venkat and Kalli bundled out the opposition. “We asked Sushil (Haridas) to go and get us a few ‘Kingfisher’ bottles. When we had a drink later that evening, he revealed the truth that sent the team into rapturous laughter ‘the shopkeeper had a few plain beer bottles and he wrapped those with the Kingfisher sticker!!!’

TN Ranji win on Sunday in Coimbatore

PR Ramakrishnan has been overseeing some of the cricket developments in Coimbatore and has played an advisory role as and when required. When this writer congratulated him on getting TN to win its first match of the season in his home town after a not so convincing start to the new season, he told P Ramesh who had been present for the Buchi Babu final in September last year that the pitch in Coimbatore is a good one for batting and he saw Jagadeesan bat really well on the opening day. “The spinners seemed to have bowled well to bundle out the Railways twice in two days”, he said.

Railways cricketer Riaz recounted as to how his slow looping off spin got him wickets "I was probably the slowest off spinner in that period and many batsmen got out reaching out to the ball when it did not quite reach them!!"

Star Studded IOB Team

SMK’s IOB team mates from that phase M Sundar, N Ramesh, TA Sekar, S Ramji and B Bhaskar (Bosskey) were also to catch up on memories from those early years at the Bank when V Krishnaswamy was trying to build a strong team in the first division. 

K Srikkanth, his brother Srinath, big hitting R Prabhakar, Off Spinner V Ramnarayan,  P Mukund and K Barath Kumar too were present.

AG Harjinder Singh was delighted with SMK for having put together such an event "It has really provided us with fresh energy looking back at those great years in cricket", he told SMK.

From the man who put this event together

The final words of the evening came from the organiser SM Krishnakumar (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2024/01/sm-krishnakumar-madras-university.html), now working for Reuters in Sydney. He said that it was always great banter in the dressing room with each pulling the other one’s legs. "It was great excitement to play in Chennai in the 1970s as there was great competition and you were always fighting for your place. There was happiness after a win. And a loss resulted in long post mortem. There was also drinking on the sly. But what was the biggest outcome of that decade in cricket was the bonding amongst players that has stood the test of time and this evening’s gathering is testimony to that."

A cricketer commending SMK's great helping attitude said that the victorious University captain had supported him financially, quietly without making noise, at a time when he was in real need of help. That marks his character, he said. SMK is every ready to help his fellow cricketers of the 1970s in any way he can.

SMK placed on record the great support extended to him by V Shiv over the last month in making arrangements at the MCC for this evening's event.

A small booklet brought out by senior cricket journalist Partab Ramchand, who also welcomed the gathering, was handed out to the cricketers with Venkat receiving the first copy from Srikkanth.