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 Somasundaram ground |
Chennai
Cricket |
 Mylapore, Triplicane and
Egmore-Purasawalkam were the strongholds of Madras cricket in the early years.
The league matches between Mylapore Recreation Club (MRC) and Triplicane Cricket
Club (TCC) were even dubbed the local version of the War of Roses between
Yorkshire and Lancashire in English county cricket. M J Gopalan and C R
Rangachari were the stalwarts of TCC while the descendants of Buchi Babu moved
from Madras United Club, or MUC, where he first defied the British, to Mylapore,
to make MRC a strong force. While Mylapore, Triplicane and south Madras beyond
the Adyar continued to produce cricketers of merit in independent India, a new
centre of cricket emerged in T Nagar and the surrounding areas, known as
Mambalam, West Mambalam and so on.
 A whole new generation of
talented and enthusiastic cricketers followed the birth of Mambalam Mosquitos
towards the end of the 1940s. The trend continued and grew in strength, so that
by the time the 1970s came round, Mambalam was as much a stronghold of cricket
as the traditional nurseries of the game.
If there is one place in
Chennai where cricket is played with a fervour and in numbers unmatched by any
venue outside Mumbai’s maidans, it is the Mayor Somasundaram ground in T Nagar,
though in recent times, the Marina ground, belonging to Presidency College,
presents a similar picture.
 I refer in particular to the
number of cricket games that can be in progress simultaneously. Anyone who has
stood and watched the mind-boggling number of informal cricket ‘matches’
that can be on at any given time on Mumbai’s Azad Maidan or Cross Maidan will
understand what I refer to here. At Somasundaram ‘ground’ too, a young
collection of cricketers can walk in and pitch their stumps in a territory they
informally come to own over a period of time, and start an evening’s practice
session or ‘sign match’ at will. It can be confusing for the onlooker when
he finds the third man of one ‘match’ literally rubbing shoulders with the
first slip of another (or occasionally even with someone, God forbid, involved
in some other sport), though the players themselves suffer from no such
handicap, as they focus on their own game to the exclusion of everything else.
 In the eighties and nineties, I
was an occasional visitor to watch my younger friends who were regular players
at ‘Somasundaram ground’. It was a revelation to me how many state level
cricketers active in Chennai during that period owed their beginnings to that
venue. The TVS and Alwarpet Cricket Club wicket-keeper Venkatasubramaniam,
popularly known as ‘Bondu’, was one of them. Anyone who had watched his
brilliant takes behind the wicket and his attacking batsmanship, especially
against short-pitched bowling, could easily guess where he learnt to hook and
pull with such power. His quick reflexes and footwork were unmistakable products
of tennis ball cricket honed over the years at the ground bearing the former
mayor’s name. Another fine batsman who comes to mind immediately is K Bharatan,
the Railways batsman who made waves in the eighties and nineties. Leg spinner S
Madhavan and fast bowler T A Sekar are a couple of other cricketers who were
often seen there in their youth.
With the increasing
urbanisation of our times, parks like Somasundaram grounds are fast becoming a
rare commodity and children and young adults no longer enjoy the luxury of such
open spaces, often being forced to adopt streets as their playgrounds. But as
long as these open spaces survive, they will continue to delight young players
not only of cricket but a wide a variety of games, often changing with the
season.
V Ramnarayan
wordcraft@vsnl.com
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