Yesterday India bet Sri Lanka in the first ODI in Cricket. Government people say is biased towards cricket players. Padma awards are not given to Olympic Bronze Medal winners. Why??
No one can give a convincing answer. Now
I am reminded of the cricketing days we had at Cuddalore, especially after reading the comments of Girivasan and Iyer. I forgot .........., From day one of the starting of the cricket team I was the Captain of the team. (no.1??) Infact no one opted to and hence I was the defacto captain. Self appointed as I took the initiative and started the team.
I had to litrally fight with the then Factory Manager and GM, way back in 1988, to get the money sanctioned to buy kits (bat, ball, pads, glouse, u.guards,etc) for the team. somehow I manged to pool in a team of members who were really interested in the game but were not v.good players. I could convince the management that it will improve the relations between the engineers and workmen.
It really did wonders for the relationship. The cricket team was given a boost after Mr.PKK and Iyer joined us. Both even participated in the game. Iyer, from Bombay, the Mecca of cricket in India, was a very good bowler and Murthy was a hitter like David Boon. We had another cricketer Girivasan from Triplicane, which is a synonym to cricket in Chennai. I still remember,Giri used to come all the way from Chennai for the matches at Cuddalore. Such was the interest he had in the game.
We had very good players later on, like Saikrishnan, Venkatachalam, Ravikumar, Rajendran etc. I might have forgot some good guys name, excuse me for that. Actuall we are all very good players as we went usually directly for the matches without any practice earlier, but still could win some matches. We played lot of matches at cuddalore, Neyveli, Nellikkuppam, etc and had lots of Fun.
I got my career best haul of 8 wickets in the SIPCOT tournament.
Now, with my non my participation due to advanced age and retirement , the cricket team in Penta, also had a natural death.
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Yes Sir. We had a team which had the participation from both management and workmen. Mr.Ethiraju used this platform to iron out some of the issues. Some of the most feared worken (I dont remember the names) used to participate with a lot of enthusiasm.
ReplyDeleteIn one of the match, the batting team did the umpiring job. I was facing a legspinner and a straight one from the howler hit my knee in front of the wicket. It is very very difficult to get a batsman declared LBW when the batting team does the umpiring. The bowling team also knows that. This time the bowler made an half hearted claim and up went the finger of Mr.TSS.
That was the sportsmanship and the spirit that was displayed by Mr.TSS.
Those were the days when wallets were empty but the hearts were filled with joy.
Hats off to Mr.TSS for his enthu!!!
ya,what u say is correct.Those days wallets were not that bulging as today,but still u came to cuddalore on yr own,w/o any reimbursement just to play.That was the interest you had. yes, I forgot to mention Ethirajan's name.
ReplyDeleteThose were the days, Sridhar. It was pure fun and frolic. No undercurrents, no mailce. We have laughed when we lost, and always taken things in our stride.
ReplyDeleteIt created an unique bonding, and I remember my son and daughter were also part and parcel of every single match.
You were our today's Dhoni with an enthusiasm that used to put youngsters to shame. Equally interesting was the fact that players under you did shudder when they dropped a catch or hung their bat outside the off stump.
Keep posting since you bring to life nostalgic memories
ofcourse, I remember Sashank giving practice for us before the match. Your comments are very true.Thanks for the encomium.
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