A Tribute to Long lost Chennai Cricketers
Santhome High School, the Local Lords for budding cricketers in Madras with an envious list of great cricketers the school has produced. During the 80s daily nets (morning and evening) and weekend practice matches were round the year events without a break. We played 20-20 games long before Twenty-Twenty format took prominence – A normal event at Santhome during most summer camps and there were a few proficient run getters in this format who specialized scoring heavily in the infamous odd shaped Santhome ground – half distance concreted matting wicket, laid sideways with the shortest long on / long off, longest cover boundary and reasonable midwicket country ending in the basketball court.
If IPL were to be there in the 80s, I can guarantee that Chennai and Santhome cricketers would’ve made quite an impact.
I spent countless hours at the nets and most weekend playing matches at Santhome. Studying at Santhome and playing Cricket have taught me many lessons in life that I cherish even today.
This blog is a tribute to some long lost cricketers I have played with, I have looked up to…few peers and few idols. A walk down the memory lane – early-mid-late 80s Cricket in Chennai and Santhome in particular
As I think through many great names come to my mind with whom I had the privilege of playing with or watching them play...here are a few and my memories...not in any particular order...
G. Shyam Sundar
Shyam was a star in the early 80s. Still remember his knock of 160 odd in 30 overs at the under-15 level. It was some sort of a school record for a long time. I went to the same school as Shyam – St. Johns and followed him at Santhome. VS did the same with me. Recall the early days watching Shyam play at the St.Bede's ground when I was still at St. Johns. VS and I went to field for his uncles team as kids. I was running from 3rd man to 3rd man fielding and occasionally goofing off looking at Shyam bat. He was part of the golden group that Mr.T.S.Mukund picked to mentor. Shyam was a class act, a passionate cricketer, who gave a 100% at all times. A very stylish batsman - the way he walked in to bat, the wristy square cuts or a staunch pull to the boundary followed by his walk across the wicket with head tilted to the side were all a treat to watch.
Still remember the summer camps he decided to play many practice matches at Santhome when we junior cricketers loved to watch and play with him. I will never miss a chance to watch Shyam bat at the Santhome nets…immediately going behind the nets to get a closer look.
Shyam’s fielding was incredible. He was fast, athletic and his wristy pick and throws were a treat to watch.
Shyam still remains to me, my childhood idol and someone I grew looking up to as a cricketer.
Still recall Shyam’s stance, like I watched him just yesterday. Legs wide apart, left wrist leaning on his knee and not the lower thigh, short back lift and a signature punch in every stroke he played.
Top memories: Short red cycle, trip to Hyderabad with Shyam and antics with Sharath in the upper berth J
Claim to fame: Under 19 Australia tour under Arjan Kripal Singh (if my memory goes right)
CK Suresh
CK (aka Lotta) was a gifted left hander. As a left spinner he had the perfect action and loop that was best suited for his height. Some where along CK got infatuated with his batting and decided to become a fulltime top order batsman at the cost of abandoning his bowling.
As a left hander, CK's stance had his bat way behind his left leg and not close to the left toe…wondered if it was due to this height and long bat or due to the high handle grip he had.
Lotta’s signature stroke was his slice or square cut at anything slightly short, hardworking batsman who ran his singles incredibly well and will never ever throw his wicket away.
Incredible fielder. Still recall the Aussie team (Dean Jones double hundred) who played a few practise matches prior to the test at Chepauk, CK impressed everyone with his fielding.
Top Memories: CK and Shyam have played many matches and batted together for Santhome and in other representative level matches, but never talked to each other.
CK Venkatraman
Venkat was incredibly talented and a natural cricketer in all aspects. One of the best wicket keepers I have ever seen. Talking about keeping up to the wickets to pace bowlers - when they bowled with the new ball for a down the leg side pick and lick the bails off stumping. Great eye and incredible behind the stumps.
I had the privilege of getting a hatrick as a leg spinner when Venkattu was a keeper – all 3 stumpings playing against Hindu High School at Bedes.
Played a lot with us as were only a couple of years apart in school. Eventually went on to play for State Bank after schooling.
One thing I have to mention is the hospitality of the CK brothers. Whenever we played at Bedes without a hesitation they would take a bunch of us without lunch to their home and his mother would serve us the best food ever.
Top Memories: Master of hitting sixes to the Kuil thope (closer to the assembly stage) and the basketball court in Santhome grounds. Of course his crazy running between the wickets with a signature call…yes yes yes yes….
Jaishankar (Jai)
Ever smiling and fun guy to be around with. His run up and bowling reminded us all of Michael Holding. Smooth run up with open chested action – not express pace but had the ability to swing the ball really well.
An amazing new ball bowler for Santhome during his heydays. But when it came to the league matches some how he ended up being a batsman in the early days for Mambalam Mosquitos J. This is what I recall.
Top Memories: Bajaarla ujaara illena nijaara…
S Anand
Loud mouthed Leggie. Somehow he was TNCAs automatic pick always till South-zone during his under 15 / under 19 days.
Excellent leggie. But in my view a pretty ordinary batsman who managed to score heavily. Opened for Santhome and bowled his leg spinners. Seen him wear helmet even in those days, when he went to bat.
Anand’s cousin Mahesh, another leggie and I, played quite a bit together – Mahesh and I were good friends initially when he joined Santhome. Used to hang out at lunch time with him and Jayant - the offie from Besant Nagar. Mahesh was a 20-20 Kumble like spinner – accurate, hard to hit and bang on target. I had my typical buy-your-wicket leggie approach who spun the ball more than Mahesh but had my doze of full tosses and long hops.
Top Memories: Hyderabad All Saints School, Jai and Kuber's prank - left Anand to run for cover... in the dorm J
Vijay Sundar
Most dedicated and committed cricketer I have ever seen. Genuine respect for the game and very hard working. Still recall a few after noon in chepauk within the stands bowling to Vijay Sundar when I showed up early for the Under-17 nets.
Viji helped me a lot trying to get me into PSG/GCT/CCT for my engineering admission.
Dedication personified. Been to his house many a times working towards a Coimbatore College admission.
Top Memories: Skipping rope always in his bag and a few 100 skips right after the nets regardless of how tired he was. Always willing to help anytime. Been to his house on many an occassion for the Engineering admission tips.
S Sharath
One of the finest cricketers I had the opportunity to play with at school and in under-17 state.
Natural cricketer. Amazingly fun to be around who was always up to some prank or the other. Cant forget the trip to Hyderabad when we were are all pretty raw young cricketers without any representation under our belt and then later on the trip to Dindigul to play for City vs. Districts in Under-17. Sharath and I were in the same room as Nirmal Kumar – the plumpy Don Bosco kid who ran away from the room after the 1st evening (or night). Sharath and I got in to trouble with the then Manager Jillu – who was so soft spoken that we raised our voice over.
Sharath had this incredible talent to score in every freaking match we played. I cant recall a time he failed when he batted. Bowled off-spinners and most of us knew he used to chuck once in a while J
Top Memories: Hit on his thigh from a fast bowler in Hyderabad, sitting under the Santhome tree next to the nets cracking really insane jokes, making fun of every other cricketer...
Sharath was a blast to play with. Full of confidence who played at the highest level with least pressure on himself. I really don’t know how he did it. At Santhome it was so much pressure to play for the school as well as representative cricket but Sharath just breezed through them with his trade mark smile and laugh.
Looking back Sharath was the most fun to play with – Absolutely competitive yet had fun every second he played the game without worrying who he played with or against.
VS Sriram
Silent, talented, never played representative cricket in school but when places after college – Played Buchi babu and many other top notch cricket.
Opening batsman who will never throw his wicket away. One summer out of the blue, VS changed on his own to the Gooch like backlift and from there on was a classic straight bat. His drives and flicks were trademark strokes.
During the heydays of Santhome crazy 20-20 matches, VS was hard to hit as a bowler with his 2 step run up. Intense and always focused – he was like the Rahul Dravid of that time.
VS and I were best friends from our 4th standard days at St.Johns. I always looked up to VS during my tough cricketing days at Santhome. Great guy to have around. VS Captained us in juniors and later played for me when I captained Santhome the final year I left school.
True privilege to play with a cricketer like Sriram. Unlucky during the school days to not play representative cricket but went places during his college days.
Aashish Kapoor
Talk about professional cricketer from day one. Had his kit with Muran pads that were light weight, excellent bat, kit bag that’s how Aashish played his game from day 1. Came from St. Marys to Santhome, Aashish was not very likeable as he had all the spanking new kit and had an air of arrogance in a school were simplicity and less talking was a must amongst cricketers. Soon Aashish adjusted and was a great cricketer to be around. In his final year at school we won many tournaments (including TNCA under-17/19) and had a few great games.
I still recall the 200 he made in 30 overs at the Engineering college grounds. Aashish captained the under-17 school team in his last year. In the same match I managed to get 6 wickets. But I still recall him throwing the ball to me and saying, “Murukku…go bowl”, he used to tease me for the way I held the tight grip on the ball during my run up.
Had the honor of playing along side Aashish for more than a couple of years.
M A Satish Kumar
Son of M.Arunachalam who played for Tamilnadu as a leg spinner - in the 70s I guess. Very stylish cricketer and so was his son.
Satish (aka Golli) had a knack of bowling excellent offspinners and disguising his leg spinner very well. He was natural cricketer, one who always wanted to have fun in the field. He was one of those who had the insatiable interest to always either bowl or bat all the time during a match.
Still recall him and Sharath picking up the bat and wanting to hit a few balls before the match taking turns and having some of us bowl to them. One such occasion, Golli mandai waited next to Sharath as Sharath was batting. Sharath in his usual every loud pompous style, hit the full toss from one of the guys who was lobbing the ball, only to hit the damn pull straight into Satish's face standing barely a few feet away waiting for his turn to bat.
Satish was rushed to the hospital for a few stitches. Came back and said he wants to be in the 11 to play the match. Such was his guts.
Hemang Badani
I recall Badani as a small kid when we were playing for under-17. Badani was in the under-13 group. He will walk with a huge kit bag bigger than him, very dedicated kid. Few may know that Badani was a good medium pace bowler as a kid who fancied his batting. Recall chucking many hours together to Badani in the Santhome Basketball court one summer camp as he was one the most junior but very promising cricketers. His Tamil was awful and we used to have a great time with this kid. As a young criceketer barely 15, Badani had tremendous guts, spite and killer instinct. Never scared to play senior boys in the nets or in a match.
Palani (RIP)
Most talented Captain. Had a privilege and honor of playing for Palani as part of the TNCA Colts team. I was the youngest and I could not have been successful but for Palani’s shrewd use of me as a young leggie in the many small Mumbai turf wicket grounds.
Palani also spent many summers in Santhome helping the Junior cricketers.
RIP was a hard hitting batsman that any bowler, particularly spinners dreaded to bowl to. He hit the ball so hard. I had the mis-fortune of bowling to him in Santhome many times for the ball to be picked or lost in the Kuil Thope.
Great Cricketing brain and amazingly figure on and off the field.
Top Memories: Played many matches in St.Bedes and Santhome. As a bowler, I would dread getting a return catch given the power he had even when he mis-timed a stroke.
B Anand
Very talented cricketer, fun loving and easy going. Did not play much with B Anand as he was at Bedes and senior to me by a good 3 to 4 years. Few times, I have watched him play or played a few practice games with him at Bedes…recall him as a very stylish batsman, daring and never tired of giving a mouthful back. Used to also bowl medium pace when we played the trade-mark Bedes – Santhome match – although not a regular bowler.
I have watched him bat in a few games – an absolute treat to watch.
Anand helped me a lot trying to get me an admission in CIT Coimbatore, where Anand did his engineering and played for.
B Balaji
Left arm orthodox spinner. Treat to watch Bajji bowl. Still recall the B Balaji – A Balaji duo bowling the left arm spin from one end and the right arm off spinners from the other end.
Cannot forget the memorable semi finals we played against Bedes at the University Union ground in the under-15. I was part of the make-shift 3 string Juniors Santhome team – Junior C team. We went all the way up to the semi finals as under dogs before we stumbled on the Bedes. We were shot out for 87 in 30 overs and gave Bedes a run for their money to score the 87.
I played Bajji 3 solid overs without giving my wicket when he was at his unplayeable best. Trick was to put the front foot down and play him. One ball out of the 20 I played I went back foot and got trapped in front.
Bajji and I graduated a the same time and the idea was he was a sure-shot with Anna University when I was trying the Coimbatore engineering schools for the sports quota.
Don’t know what ever happened to this very talented leftie…
Other special cricketers I had the opportunity to play with (in no particular order)
- Raghuram Das – Played with Raghu in Under-17 state – amazing all-rounder from Don Bosco. A natural cricketer - fine stroke making batsman and a consistent new ball bowler
- S. Sriram – Left spinner who joined Santhome from Sishya. Talented cricketer who made it in later years all the way. One more of the fine prodigy left arm spinner turned full-time batsman.
- Premsai (in TV Serials now) – good all rounder – hard hitting batsman and good new ball bowler.
- Rajesh Khanna – Accurate fast bowler who won many a match for us during my times in the Juniors and Senior School cricket. Heard some years back that he started to coach
- Shanmugam (Bun) – Talk about playing against all odds – I know of how hard it was for him to play – Excellent new ball bowler who always had a smile. Went on to play a good level of cricket in later years (for Tamilnadu - may be).
- Arasu – Styling stocky stroke filled batsman and a natural wicket keeper. He and his brother moved to Santhome from the Districts and Arasu went on to play a good amount of cricket at Chennai. Was one of those ever talkative, fun loving kids when we played.
- Anish Thomas from Bedes – Fine opening batsman who opened for Bedes and played a few good knocks for the under-15 and under-17 state games
- US Kumar – Ever smiling wicket keeper from RKM
- S. Suresh – Silent hard working stroke filled batsman who like me fancied getting run out
- K.M.Suresh – Off spinner turned to full time consistent batsman – dedication personified. Played for Santhome
- B. Venkatesh (Thayir Vadai) - From Hindu we played early days together, joined Santhome at the same time – later went on to play for IOB).
- Krishna Raj (Sombu – later days reminded me on kachra in Lagaan) – swinging his bowling arm more than once when he bowled
- Gokulakrishan - A genuine all rounder from Chinglepet Dist - Played with him a few districts matches in my high school and first year college days. I played for the districts during my 1st year college and this grew my respect for cricketers from Districts.
- Sudhakar – Son of Mr.Dharmalingam – Hard hitting left hander – a very stylish fielder. Fancied his leg spinners at nets but was never serious in games. Scored a few hundreds off the field - again as a kid during my playing days. Went on to play for India Railways - no simple achievement.
- G Venkatraman – Opening batsman – hard hitting batsman who was forced to keep for the school for couple of years that he hated 100%. Close buddies with VS.
- Abbie – Cant remember the real name – Very promising left arm spinner who came from a very humble family struggling to make ends meet – so playing cricket was a luxury. But an excellent spinner who was very accurate and hard to get by in a 20-20 game.
Some special Senior cricketers who I got to see and play with some as well:
- TG Rajan – Menacing Fast bowler who I recall had a plated left boot as he dragged his feat when he bowled,
- AV Vijay – Stylish ala chikka like batsman
- Thulasidharan (Thulsi) – Most hard working batsman who got lost in the Shyam, Anand, CK Era. Played a lot of league cricket with Thulasi.
- Kudendran (Kuber) – 6 footer who bowled his off spinners like medium pace. Part of T.S.Mukund's find.
- Ravishankar – Ravi played for Vivekananda when I first met him – Stylish left hander – helped me a lot in my first tour w. Colts as a young kid.
- Pattabhiraman – Very dedicated cricketer – From Besant Nagar so I have some affinity towards. Player that many thought was too cautious and slow. Known for losing his wicket in the end of days' play last over. I liked watching him play and the humility he had as a cricketer. During our Colts tour – much later from his school days he ended up playing many stroke filled innings. Still recall his hard press forward defense, literally a sleep-on-the-wicket posture - where the ball rolled back to the wicket – How he got out against Bedes in the ThumbsUp final.
Dream Team of Santhome – 1983-84:
No1: S Anand
No 2: Vijay Sundar
No 3: AV Vijay
No 4: Pattabhi Raman
No 5: Shyam Sundar
No 6: CK Suresh
No 7: Thulasidharan
No 8: Mahesh (WK) – Later CK Venkat
No 9: Jaishankar
No 10: Kubendran
No 11: TG Rajan
Coaches I can recall, some highly respected and some rarely had any impact.
- Mr. Adichetti – Perfectionist and an absolute pragmatist who knew how to develop talent – my first coach at St.Michaels, I had great respect for.
- Mr. P.K. Dharmalingam – My most respected teacher. He is some one I always looked up to for many years, even to this day. How can one forget his fielding drills – particularly the way he gave high catches lobbing from on hand and getting unbelievable height hitting single-handedly. Very inspiring, man of few words, taught us discipline, respect for the game and at the same time not someone who was on you every minute.
- B. Srinivasa Rao (Rao) – If there were to be a life -time achievement award, Rao (known by kids and older ones) would have been an automatic choice for his self-less efforts and passion to teach the game. In those days, coached and inspired many cricketers in Santhome purely on a voluntary basis out of interest in talent and the game. A coach who was down to earth with the kids at Santhome. Helped me a lot during my years I played for Santhome.
- CPS Mani – Coached in early days at Santhome but demanded very little respect. Had minimal knowledge of the game and was an entertainment with his communication - no offense to his cricketing skills but he was a horrible coach. Folks who knew him cannot forget the “Last two, both of us”
- CB Selvakumar (Chelli)– Briefly coached us at Santhome. Inculcated the discipline to play the game with the right outfit - cant just show up to nets in school uniform. Bring your kit and change to cricketing uniform before nets.
- Umapathy – Loved Sharath as a cricketer in his very early days when CPS Mani thought Sharath was a waste of time. Tells a lot about the caliber of the 2 coaches and talent identification.
Ramky...Batsman with an eye
While many cricketers took to Banking, engineering and other professions abandoning the game with time, I recently had a chance to re-connect with Ramy. While Ramky was much senior to me at Santhome. I have played against Indian Bank in the league which he was part of and had the opportunity to play a few times at Santhome nets and practise game. The man behind the many intelligent analysis on batsman weaknesses and strengths, wagon wheels, LBW ball animation that we see in the recent versions of the broadcast matches. Ones we dont see are the ways International teams, players and umpires use the video centric innovation and analytics that Ramky's team has built working with the India team in early 2000.
True passion for the game, Ramki turned keen observation in to cricketing intelligence and analysis that has already benefited Indian cricket at many levels - within BCCI, India Cricketers, IPL and more. Talking to Ramky it was clear that this is the beginning of many innovations and improvements in Indian Sport. This is one passionate entrepreneur with a hunger to make India win World Cups and Olympic Gold medals through his innovations.
And Finally...
Looking back, I feel fortunate to have played Cricket as I grew up - learnt to play the game with discipline, hard work and commitment. I regret I could not continue after my Santhome days. I wish I had played further past my engineering days. I did play many years later in the
My dream...relive the Santhome experience one day...play one English summer, club cricket...I hope to do this soon but dont know when and how...
