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V Gangadhar

Ambis, Rasus, Seshus and 'Lunch Ramus'

We in Chokkanthapuram village did well in these matches. As an all-rounder, I bowled medium pace, then leg spin and was expected to bat with responsibility. In June, I was enrolled in the Government Victoria College. "Go and practise with the cricket team," my village teammates advised. "You are good enough to be in the team."

Cricket practice began around 4 pm, after the lectures were over. For the first three days, I just hung around. No one took any note of me. On the fourth day, one of the players threw me the ball and asked me to bowl. But I think it was my fielding which caught the attention of the other team members. I caught two or three catches in the outfield, getting under the ball and positioning myself nicely. "Well caught," exclaimed those present. I knew I had a chance.

I became a regular at net practice and was given chance to bat and bowl. But practice was not enough. One had to show one's mettle in the few practice matches which were organised. This was mostly against the 'Town Team', consisting of former college players and a few senior cricketers.

In my first match, while fielding at deep third man, the batsman slashed at the ball. It went up and started to curve towards me. I muttered a prayer, ran towards the ball and caught it in my outstretched right hand. It was a pretty good catch. Soon, I was in the act again but, this time, the catch was a fairly simple one. I bowled four or five overs, but managed to score some 20 odd runs. This cemented my place in the team.

The Victoria College cricket ground and its Statham pavilion were quite impressive. As one walked down the pavilion steps to go to bat, one felt like playing for an English county. The outfield was lush green and there were huge trees around the ground. For the first time in my life, I used good cricket bats named after great batsmen like Len Hutton, Denis Compton, Neil Harvey and Don Bradman. My favourite was a short handled 'Len Hutton' bat, which emitted a sweet sound every time it struck the ball.

The friendly matches against the 'Town Team' did not attract many spectators. But there one permanent visitor - particularly during the lunch interval. Known as 'Lunch" Ramu, he was the owner of a sports shop in town. The college must have bought sports goods from him and hence had to feed him during lunch time!

The regional inter-collegiate matches began from October. Our first visit was to Trichur where we played against one of the local villages.

The Victoria college star opener, Ramakrishnan, was a strong off-side player who could cut and drive well. But he could not handle anything on the legside. On the evening before the match, we passed the word among the opposition that Ramakrishnan could not play anything on the offside. The next day, as we batted, the bowlers fed Ramakrishnan on his offstump and he made merry, scoring around 45 runs within no time. By this time, the opposition had guessed our game. They attacked his leg stump and Ramakrishnan was out in no time.

It was not pleasant playing in Trichur. The local boys were a rowdy bunch and would do anything to enable their team to win. Some of them stood behind our scorer and went on tapping him on his head. He gave up scoring and was rubbing his head all the time. The local boys passed uncomplimentary remarks on how we played cricket and it was a big relief when the match ended. We lost but were happy to return to our home town.

Another time, playing against a strong college team in Mangalore which included some batsmen who played for Madras in the Ranji trophy, we were bundled out for 58 runs. The hosts had piled up 500 plus with one of their batsmen scoring a double century. As our innings ended, we expected that we would asked to follow on and bat again. Imagine our consternation, when we found the opposition's openers padding up again! They wanted additional batting practice at our expense. Our manager and captain had a hurried consultation and we conceded the match. It was one weary cricket team which returned to Palakadu.

My most memorable moment in inter-collegiate cricket came the next year when we played at Ernakulam. We bundled our opponents for less than 100 runs but lost nearly six wickets for only around 65 runs. I began to hit out. Very soon, their star bowlers who had engineered a collapse in our innings were being hit out of the ground. The runs came rapidly and the scores were equal.

We had lost nine wickets. I was also set to make the winning hit, but my pull shot was caught by a fielder and the match was tied. Under the rules, a toss was ordered, our captain called wrongly and we were out of the tournament. I had tears in my eyes as we walked back to our hotel.

Touring was fun. I think we were paid Rs 3 daily as our meal allowance. Along with other brahmin boys, I stealthily tasted omelet and egg curry. Masala dosas and fried bananas were other delicacies we enjoyed. At home, we were seldom allowed to eat at restaurants and the cricketing tours enabled us to taste forbidden dishes. At night, we went to the movies. The senior and more experienced players, who often complained that Rs 3 was not enough for a night out, came back late to the hotel rooms with their mouths smelling. "It is beer," muttered one of my teammates in a shocked whisper.

There were others tours to Coimbatore and Salem where the college team distinguished itself. At Salem, the team met local cricket star R T Parthasarthy who played for the state. Another wellknown player was batsman M K Iqbal who scored 50 plus in no time. We did not win any major tournaments, but I had some consolation when my class won the inter-class tournament, beating the much fancied third year class which had most of the college stalwarts. That day, the ball did everything for me and I took six wickets for 20 odd runs.

As the term drew to a close, we had the usual college cricket team photograph with the principal sitting at the centre. Today, that picture evokes memories. Nearly 25 years later, I ran into some of my team mates. Parameswaran was employed with the Gujarat government at Gandhinagar while star batsman K N Radhakrishnan was the news editor of the Bombay tabloid, Mid-Day.. He invited me to do a regular column. But I was not through playing cricket. The final days of my career were spent in Ahmedabad.