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VOL. XXIII No. 10, September 1-15, 2013
Unlucky to find a Test cap too far
The tenth in a series of profiles by V. RAMNARAYAN of cricketers who may have made an all-time Madras* squad.

V. Sivaramakrishnan.

Sivaramakrishnan, the tall, left handed opening batsman, who played first class cricket between 1973 and 1988, had the highest Ranji Trophy aggregate for a Tamil Nadu batsman for a long time, before another lefthander, S Sharath, went past him. My youngest brother, Sivaramakrishnan was, however, my senior in first class cricket, making his debut for Tamil Nadu three seasons before I made mine for Hyderabad. As he was playing for Bihar during my first season, I had to wait another season before I bowled to him for the first time. Fittingly, as his elder brother, I got him out in that game at Lal Bahadur Stadium, Hyderabad, but only after he had made a bright 61. Thereafter, we shared the honours more or less equally in Hyderabad-Tamil Nadu matches.

Sivaramakrishnan represented the beginning of a batting revival in Tamil Nadu cricket in the 1970s. He was an important member of the Madras University team that won the Rohinton Baria trophy for the first time in its history. That was in 1971 and, under the captaincy of R. Ravichandran, Madras discovered a galaxy of young stars in Sivaramakrishnan, Krishnaswami, Mukund, Sushil Haridas, Victor Fernandes, Bhargav Mehta, N. Bharathan and P. R. Ramakrishnan. The left-hander’s best contribution in the tournament was a fine hundred in the final against Bombay. A hundred and other good scores in the Vizzy Trophy followed, South Zone winning the title.

Making his Ranji debut against Karnataka in 1972-1973, Sivaramakrishnan was run out for zero in the first innings, but gave evidence of his class in the second innings, when he punished Prasanna and Chandrasekhar to make 53.

With stiff competition building up for batting places in the Tamil Nadu eleven with the arrival of P. Ramesh, another left hander of great promise, and a line-up that had in it Krishnaswami, T. E. Srinivasan, Jabbar, Satvinder Singh and Mukund, Sivaramakrishnan moved to greener pastures in the steel town of Jamshedpur in Bihar, where he played for TISCO and Bihar in the company of the likes of Ramesh Saxena and Daljit Singh. His consistent performances won him a place in the East Zone team, and he scored runs in the Duleep and Deodhar Trophy matches against North Zone, dancing down the wicket to Bishan Bedi and the like.

Sivaramakrishnan returned to Madras in the very next season, with his reputation enhanced by his Bihar sojourn and an earlier stint in Calcutta where he had proved his competence against the moving ball, playing quality swing bowlers with consummate ease.

Back in Madras for the Ranji Trophy, the left-hander batted in the middle order against Karnataka and scored a magnificent 169 against Prasanna, Chandrasekhar, Vijayakrishna and Co.

Sivaramakrishnan went from strength to strength from that point, to become Tamil Nadu’s most reliable batsman. He was a strong driver of the ball and revelled in the cut. He was particularly good when the chips were down and when there was something in the wicket for the bowlers. One of the most brilliant close-in fielders Tamil Nadu has produced, he held more than a hundred catches in the national championship, besides occasionally turning his arm over usefully with gentle in-swingers.

Sivaramakrishnan came close to being picked to tour Australia in 1977-1978, when he made 74 for South Zone against North at Bangalore. His rival to the second opener’s slot Chetan Chauhan failed in that game, but North piled up a large total after debutant Yashpal Sharma made an impressive 173. The only way South could have gained the first innings lead and, by virtue of it, the match, after being down at 50 plus for 3 was for Siva and T. E. Srinivasan (who scored a brilliant hundred) to put on a massive partnership, but Siva virtually threw his wicket away just when the attack was tiring. South Zone yielded a lead of over 100, North went on to win the match and Chetan Chauhan made a hundred in the final at Bombay, to clinch a place in the squad. The rest is history, as Gavaskar and Chauhan struck a durable partnership thereafter.

Opening the innings for South Zone against Tony Greig’s Englishmen at Hyderabad (I was warming the reserve benches then), Siva negotiated the seam and swing of John Lever and Co., and was on the verge of launching an all-out attack on the spinners, when he was run out while he and G.R. Vishwanath attempted an impossible single to Derek Randall. He had made 27. In those pre-helmet days, he was out fending off bouncers from Imran Khan and Malcolm Marshall in the tour matches against Pakistan and West Indies, and failed to convert a good start against Rodney Hogg and Co. of Australia. These failures kept him out of a Test berth. His last chance was against England again, in 1983, following a hugely successful Ranji season, but again he was dismissed for 38 and 30, though he made batting look relatively easy facing Bob Willis at his quickest.

Some of Siva’s best batting against fast bowling came in Colombo in 1982, and in Perth six years later. In Sri Lanka, he batted so well in the first innings of the Gopalan Trophy match against genuinely quick bowling on a fiery wicket that the coach Peter Philpott advised the captain not to enforce the follow on so that the Lankan bowlers gained more practice bowling to a quality left hander, ahead of the then forthcoming tour of Australia, which had a few southpaws. In Australia in 1988, playing for the Ranji Trophy champion Tamil Nadu, he blunted a pace attack which had three Test fast bowlers on the Perth wicket notorious for its pace and bounce. It was a brave counterattack amidst a general batting collapse.

Winning the Ranji Trophy that season had been a personal triumph for Sivaramakrishnan. He had come back into the side for the knockout stage of the championship after announcing his retirement at the start of the season and scored heavily in all three matches he played, including a hundred in the semifinal and 94 in the final. He continued to play league cricket in Chennai for many more seasons, regularly amassing runs.

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Madras Week a Great Success
The Muddle that is The ASI
Madras Fifty Years Ago
Brindian or Hindlish
Beginnings of the Labour Movement
Goodness Mercy And Toughness
Looking Back on Madras Week
The Hindu Metrplus Theatre Fest
On Your Marks Geography and a Laugh!
Unlucky to Find a Test cap too Far

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