Cricket players of my era

Cricket Players

Abraham George
I saw George Abraham score 198 for Kerala against Andhra in 1959 or 60 at Victoria college ground. Kerala made a record total of 555 for 5 dec. Balan Pandit scored 262 ( notout). C.S Nayudu ( brother of CK)was the captain for Andhra. My dad called him home for lunch and I was introduced as a budding cricketer. I watched the full match sitting under famous rain tree in Victoria College ground. I think the pavilion was called Statham Pavilion. Mr.Murthy was Physical Director in those days. He also coached in basics of Tennis. Dr.Krishnan’s son Raghu was the champion tennis player.

P.R.Ashokanand
Very stylish batsman from Bangalore. I saw him scoring 106 against Kerala in Palghat . Mysore captain was B.C. Alva. Team consisted of famous players like Kasturirangan, Nazreth, LT Subbu.

Abbas Ali Baig
I met Abbas Ali Baig in Calicut, when Telugu Assn of REC, Calicut arranged a reception. Had lunch with him. Very articulate, sweet, learned Oxford Blue. Fair and handsome. He spoke about his debut in England, when he scored century on appearance. He was called to play for India from Oxford, surprisingly, and scored a memorable century.
Balan Pandit
If there was a cricketer from Kerala worth the name, it was Balettan. A classic orthodox, bookish opening bat. He played strokes from the manual. Scored many centuries including 262 not out against Andhra in Palghat, which I have seen. He was a good wicket keeper. At one time he was called for Indian team nets, however was not selected due to Bombay wicket keeper like Thamane favoured by selectors. He later coached me at Trichur and told my dad that I had good potential. He taught me the square drive the way it was played by Rohan Kanhai of West Indies. I scored many runs through the stroke in college days.
HD Ballal
Dr. Ballal of Bangalore was a good cricketer and a tennis player. Even today he plays tennis in veteran circuit and is highly ranked. I have played tennis with him many times in Sadashivanagar club. His overheads are very famous. His son Dr. Madan Ballal is a good tennis player and a sports doctor in Bangalore.
Michael Dalvi
Dashing , handsome cricketer , played for Assam and later for Madras . Brig.Dalvi’s son.
I have seen him with Tiger Pataudi, surrounded by lovely girls letching them. He was a good friend of my friend Gopal of SPIC who has played for Assam with him.
P.K.Dharmalingam
Dharma was the darling of Madras cricket lovers. A famous sixer hitter in league. Crowds will come just to watch him play. I remember we kids gang used to go Ramakrishna mission main grounds to see Dharma hitting sixes.He played for Airforce , Thambaram with my uncle D. K. Venkatraman and were great pals in drinking rum and smoking charminar. Later he played in Madras league and for Madras. He played against me when I captained SPIC , Tuticorin’s win against India cements in Tinnevelly in 1973.We won the match by one wicket on the last ball. When Dharma came for batting. I asked Bharathan to bowl flighted off spinner and put tall V. Sivaramakrishnan ( Vidyut’s dad) on boundary line at midwicket and got him caught.
Victor Fernandes
Victor was great opening bowler in Madras. He played for Indian schools tour of England,when Surinder Amarnath scored last ball six to win the match against English school boys at Lords .He later played for Madras Univ, Tamilnadu and SPIC. He has won many matches for SPIC Tuticorin under my captaincy. I knew him personally also due to other common interest like racing. Once he got a jackpot of Rs 3 lakhs, but tore the ticket accidentally. He searched for the torn ticket and stuck it with a tape. But Race authorities refused to pay. It was the talk of the punters for many years.
B. Kalyanasundaram
I knew Kalli from 1963 when we joined together in REC Calicut. He was my room mate in hostel in Westhill. He came from Srirangam and his brother was very close to him, as he had lost his father early. His brother came to me and told me to take care of him as he was coming out of his house to study so far away.We went for Calicut Dist cricket team selection together with I.Raman. He and Raman got selected. Later he as captain of Kerala University when I was member. I remember the selection match in Trivandrum medical college in which I hammered Kalli as a opening bat and I got selected.We toured together to Mysore for the Interuniversity matches in 1968. He was a good fast bowler with an unplayable in cutter.

S.Bharathan/ Kadiresa/ Bhargav

Madras university team owes its only success in All India Inter university to Bharathan , Kadiresan and Bhargav Mehta for their wonderful bowling. A great bowler of Madras. Bharathan used to be scared of Venkat playing for SPIC. I have seen some fantastic bowling feats by the trio for SPIC . Bharathan was right arm leg spin, Kadiresan rightarm offspin, and Bhargav left arm leg spin and googly.
T.V.Ramana
T.V.Ramana is a family friend. He worked under my father in Guru Nanak College, Madras and later became HOD of Maths Dept and Principal also. He used to play for Andhra in Ranji. He only got a seat in the college for Robin Singh, when he landed from West Indies and introduce him to Madras cricket and ultimately played for India. My dad was his mentor in mathematics.
P.Ravi Achan
Most respected cricketer of Kerala. He was a great all rounder with fantastic bowling. He used to get nip from dead pitches with his cutters. He belonged to respected Tripanithura Thamburan family. I have seen him playing for Kerala many times. I met him in Tripanithura with my dad in the club and Balan pandit, my coach was also there. He advised me to concentrate on studies and not in cricket too much as he said that I should get qualified as an engineer and play cricket.

V. Sivaramakrishnan
Sivu was one of most stylist left hander opening bat. He was also part of the great Madras Univ team. He played under me for SPIC Tuticorin against India Cements. He played upto South Zone level, but could not get into Indian team. Hope his son Vidyut achieves what his dad could not get.
S.Venkatraghavan
I knew Venkat after I joined SPIC. He was also undergoing training partly in UK along with me in 1970.He used to play for Derbyshire. Every kid in the street in London used to recognise him. He took me and CP Srinivasan to Lords. We were received at gate by the Secretary of MCC, Mr.Donald Carr . He showed us the long room, players room/ players bar and he opened the museum specially for us with a duplicate key and showed us all memorablia. Venkat took us to the center of Lords pitch. Later we toured together to Scotland, Edinburgh, Glasgow etc. Later in SPIC, we used to share a room in Guindy building and work together under Mr.D.L.Rao. We used to share Jackpot , Treble and once got a treble for Rs 3600/-.I played in Hindu trophy for SPIC under his captaincy. He used to run between the wickets so fast that I got runout in the match against Binny Mills, not able to keep up with his speed. He used to shout a lot in the field. I lost touch with him after SPIC days. He was a good engineer, very intelligent, played for India when he was studying fourth year in Guindy Engg college. Later he became a successful international umpire.His exploits in the cricket field is well documented.

K.Jayaraman( Jay)