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Thursday, August 15, 2019

VB is no more !!! Sad !!


57 certainly not the age ! ~ my heart still wishes that the news it untrue !

Have not seen many from Tamil Nadu play for India – Murali Vijay, Dinesh Karthik is almost out; will Vijayshankar get another chance is not known – most talented Ravi Ashwin is getting a raw deal; while Washington Sundar plays in T20 – there was a time when this man opened with Krish Srikkanth and then with Woorkeri Venkat Raman.

In all he played only 7 ODIs – ended up making 88 in total with highest of 53 – certainly not doing justice to his talent – could never fathom why he did not succeed at that level. – the man Vakkadai Biksheswaran Chandrasekhar born on 21.8.1961 – played for Tamil Nadu and Goa at Ranji level. Was a real swash buckler !

It was a real thriller of match in Oct 1988 which brought VB Chandrasekhar into National reckoning.   ROI captained by Arunlal made 433 with good contributions from IB Roy 60; Navjot Sidhu 86, Srikant Kalyani 93; Jeshwant 62.  S Vasudevan took 5 for 116.  Krish Srikkanth leading TN made 57 and TN were all out for 226.   Gopal Sharma took 6/69.  ROI made the blunder of batting again and this time were shot out for 132 in less than 50 overs with Vasudevan taking 4 and Srikkanth taking 3 for 14.  Chasing a target of 340, Srikkanth and VB Chandrasekhar plundered at will and TN made the required runs in 79 overs brining out a remarkable victory which remains etched in memory.  Hirwani and Gopal Sharma were hit to all parts of Chepauk.  Watched that innings at Chepauk when most of my friends had started for home with no hope of TN doing something in that match.

He  scored 4,999 runs from 81 matches when he retired from first class cricket. Remember that he made his debut against New Zealand at Visakhapatnam – Krishnamachari Srikkan took 5 wickets and scored 70.  At Vadodara, he opened with Srikkanth again, scored 53. Later in 1990 played his last 2 matches against Australia at  Christchurch & Hamilton – and was never to play for India again.

He would ever be remembered as the man who picked up Mahendra Singh Dhoni.  He once wrote of his train journey to Hyderabad Ranji Trophy debut.  His father was a leading lawyer and he made Ranji debut at the Secunderabad Gymkhana. Abdul Jabbar lost the toss Abdul Azeem scored a triple hundred. Khalid Abdul Qayyum and Vijay Mohanraj also get a hundred. Immanuel Rajkumar, also made his debut and would not like to remember that match. In 1988 in that Irani Cup match at Chepauk, chasing a mammoth 340 to win, VB  scored 119. He scored his hundred from 56-balls. It was then the fastest in First-Class cricket by an Indian.


In 1997, Chandrasekhar opened his VB Cricket Academy.  He served as state and national level selector. He served as a Chairman of State Selection from 2001 to 2007. He was the national selector in between 2004 and 2006.

Sad to know that the gentle person  V.B. Chandrasekhar passed away in Chennai today. He was 57 !  He had a great role to play in TNPL too.  His commentary was pleasant and enjoyable

Tamil Nadu and his innumerable followers will miss him. I was a great fan of his and FB friend of him too.

Feeling sad – S. Sampathkumar
15.8.2019.@ 22:15 hrs.


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