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One incident that year left a very big impression on me. It was a fixed match I had to play in. It was then that I vowed I’d never be a part of such a game. I was fortunate to get a call from Alwarpet the next year. ACC boasted of stalwarts, great names in Ranji and Duleep Trophy cricket, Shiv, Vasu, Chinda (Satvinder Singh), Gullen (P Ramesh), Nutty and Mukund to name a few. I was made to feel at home from Day 1.
There were also my friends Nedu (unorthodox medium pacer Nedumaran) and Bondu (wicket keeper and explosive batsman Venkatasubramaniam) with whom I had played junior cricket. Then the deadly pair of Ashok Kumar and Prassy, the lovable Durrani and N S Manohar. Arni the General, our marker, showed you respect only if you performed, and almost everyone in the team including the captain P Mukund feared him. The one and only VAP (V A Parthasarathi, our manager) was an enigma. The first year was fun.
I learned a lot from playing for that team. The promoters of Alwarpet, TVS, sponsored my trip to England in 1985 with the TN Colts. This was the time I developed the virtue of patience as I was in the TN Ranji team reckoning for five years but did not get a chance to make my debut. It was in my sixth and last year for ACC that I made my Ranji debut. It was a dream year for me. I topped the aggregate and average for TN, and had terrific support and guidance from V Sivaramakrishnan. Then it was SPIC for ten years from 1986 to 1996. Again there were Shiv and Vasu, P Ramesh, Arun Kumar, T A Sekar and Ravi Mishra. During my ten years in SPIC, we won the championship four times. As a key player, my confidence was good and it was another great team. At least eight guys in that team were capable of winning a cricket match on their own.
Then it was on to Mambalam Mosquitos where the pressure was different. Since it was our own team, my dad being the secretary, I had to play a dual role as manager and player. I had great support from D Girish, ‘Papa’ R Venkatesh, and T S Mukund with Girish the man responsible for the team’s formation and growth from the third division. Published by Kalamkriya Ltd and distributed by EastWest Books (Madras) Pvt. Ltd, the book, 'The Mosquitos and Jolly Rovers' is priced at Rs 295. Kalamkriya, 9, Cathedral
Road,
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Copyright
2008, Chennai Interactive
Business Services (P) Ltd. |
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I started my First Division career with a stint with Reserve Bank. The team got relegated to the second division that year in spite of having the tearaway T A Sekar in its ranks. It was a bad start but I had reason to feel happy as I gained good experience playing two innings in almost every match. (A weak team had a greater chance of batting twice in a two-day match).
The subsequent years saw some big inclusions to the team in K Srikkanth, Ramnarayan, Bharath Kumar, Harjinder Singh (Kaka), and later R Madhavan and W V Raman. Kaka was a real character and everyone’s target for some fun. He was indirectly a tension reliever, known for his unusual T-shirts and for insisting on stretching and renailing the matting at every opportunity he got while batting, and for tearing new grips on the bat. However, he was a resolute, gutsy batsman. The unorthodox M O Parthasarathi, MOP, was VAP’s favourite. “MOP evvalo adichaan?”, was VAP’s invariable query as soon as he came to the match. Celebrations at the Mylapore Club after the match were marked by Bharath Kumar and P Mukund making VAP nervous with their huge orders for badam
halwa.
I joined HCL in 1996, played for its team Kohinoor in the second division, brought the team to the first, and played for two more years before HCL gave up the team. It was a different priority in HCL. The urge to perform was there but the accent was on giving chances to youngsters. But I still enjoyed my cricket and thankfully, my contribution was significant. That’s when I realised that you can enjoy your batting and still make runs.
