Can you identify this Cricketer, who shot to glory in a
Chepauk test ? – post on England’s tour of India.
Making debut, playing for the Nation is a great dream –
that way both T Natarajan and Washington Sundar have achieved greatness as they
debuted in the Gabba test which would be remembered for posterity for that
famous win (Test and the Series). While Washington
is a Chennaite - Natarajan, grew up in Chinnappampatti, a village about 370kms
away from Chennai, cricket was escapism from poverty. Every cricket fan would be familiar with his
backstory by now. Natarajan and his protégé G Periyaswamy, who is playing for
Tamil Nadu in the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament, would hop into share
autos to the neighbouring towns and villages, yorking oppositions !
In late 1970s Indians had not exactly learnt the art of
playing ODI and for the WC – Abid Ali was pulled up from nowhere to open. When India were to tour Down under in
1980-81, talk was about the lean aggressor Krishnamachari Srikkanth. Remember a huge team of ours had pooled money
to buy tickets and watch the Deodhar Trophy match between West Zone and South
Zone at Chepauk (a premier one day match
– a rarity those days). West had always
been a strong team having the likes of Gavaskar, Vengsarkar, Sandip Patil,
Ghulam Parkar and more.
Almost the whole crowd had come to watch Srikkanth
succeeding and getting selected for the tour down under. In the first few overs, when Cheeka was
denied the strike, the crowds were even heckling Thirumalai Echambadi
Srinivasan, a stylish batsman. Things were to change later – all of
us saw an innings of a life time – a brilliant 129 by TE carting all the
bowlers with disdain and with great cricketing strokes. He was powerful on leg and caressed shots on
the off. It was a total of around 270 +
which in those days was a match winning one.
TE was indeed selected for the 1981 Tour. On 6th
Dec 1980 at Melbourne half of Indian side were new faces with Kirti Azad,
Binny, Dilip Doshi, Sandip Patil and TE making their debuts. TE opened with Sunny and outsurvived him
against the likes of Dennis Lilllee, Lenny Pascoe, Graf and Lawson. He scored
only 6. Patil made 64, India
mustered 208 and could bowl the mighty
Aussies all out for 142. His next
chance came on 10th Jan 1981 against New zealand when he scored 4 getting out
to Jeremy Coney this time. On a juicy
track, Richard Hadlee went wicketless but Indians were totalled poor 112. Sadly, TE was denied opportunities !
Both the South African and Australian Test squads will
quarantine ahead of their yet-to-be-confirmed three-Test series in March, in
what will be the strictest bio-secure bubble yet in South Africa. Unlike for
the England and Sri Lanka series, where training could begin after the squads
had taken their first Covid-19 tests - though social interaction was not
allowed until after the third test - for the Australia series, players on both
sides will be confined to their rooms for a longer period of time. For that
reason, South Africa's Test squad will leave Pakistan on February 9 to begin
their quarantine period at home. A separate squad will play the three T20Is in
Pakistan on February 11, 13, and 14 in what CSA director of cricket Graeme
Smith sees as an inevitable consequence of the times and something member
boards will have to work together to ensure the cricket calendar is as
unaffected as possible.
Chepauk has hosted matches since 1934 ! .. the first of that was Test no. 232, a 4
day Test .. .. there was a time when
Pongal Tests were so famous ! .. .. now Chepauk would host 2 Tests against
England b u t .. .. the prospect of them being played behind closed
doors has grown stronger after the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association informed its
members that no crowds would be allowed at the MA Chidambaram stadium. The TNCA
took the decision despite the Indian government recently ruling that outdoor
sport could be conducted with spectators at 50% capacity. Chennai will host the
first two matches of the four-Test series with the first Test scheduled to be
held from February 5 to 9 and the second from February 13 to 17. Both teams
will then travel to Ahmedabad for the last two Tests, to be played at Motera
stadium. The third Test, to be played under lights, is scheduled from February
24 to 28 and final Test from March 4 to 8.
England's tour of India, which also includes five T20Is
(to be played in Ahmedabad) and three ODIs (in Pune), is the first international
cricket that India will host since the sport went on a global hiatus last year
due to the Covid-19 pandemic. On January 20 the TNCA secretary R
Ramaswamy sent a circular to the association's members saying the decision to
bar crowds was taken in unison with the BCCI as a "preventive
measure". "In view of the prevailing Covid pandemic, BCCI has decided
not to take any kind of risk with the safety of the players during the
forthcoming India-England Test series," Ramaswamy said. "As per BCCI
directive, the first two Test matches will take place behind closed doors (No
Spectators/Guests/Sub-Committee Members) as a preventive measure."
Despite the TNCA decision, a senior official at the
Gujarat Cricket Association, which runs the Motera ground, remained optimistic
of having some section of the ground open to crowds. In 2020 the refurbished
Motera was inaugurated by former US president Donald Trump. With a capacity of
110,000 Motera is the biggest-capacity ground in world cricket. The GCA
official said that subject to the permission of both the Indian and Gujarat
state governments, if not half, at least tickets could be sold to fill the
stadium to at least 20-30% capacity. Both squads are scheduled to land in Chennai by January
27 and will straightaway enter a biosecure bubble, which has become the norm in
all cricket. After an initial three-day quarantine, teams would start their
training while undergoing regular testing.
In Dec 2016 - Not
many would have fancied Karun Nair (the man at the start) – – he had failed in the 1st two tests … at
close of play on day 3 Karun Nair was unbeaten on somewhat ordinary 71 off 136 balls but next
day was to add 232 more in 245 balls..
the triple coming much faster as Kohli declared immediately on his reaching the
great landmark. Nair rocked on to the
backfoot and thumped Adil Rashid’s delivery of the 191st over to
become only the third player in Test history to turn his maiden hundred
into a triple. Thanks to Karun Nair’s
triple century, India amassed 759 for seven – their highest ever Test
score. Earlier KL Rahul missed out his double
ton by a solitary run.
With all that glory – Karun Nair is only 29 years of age now. He has played 6 tests making 374 runs with 303* as highest. His scores read : 4; 13; 303*; 26 & 0; 23; and 5. He last played against Australia in Dharamsala in Test no. 2258 in Mar 2017. Will he get another chance to bat for the Nation ??
22.01.2021
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