 Guest players
For decades, Chennai has played host to cricketers from other cities, even other states. One of the vital factors responsible for the development of Kerala cricket has been the experience gained by many players of that state in the senior division of the TNCA league, and the same has been true of a number of cricketers from Andhra Pradesh. In recent years, cricketers from many other states have also been groomed on the playgrounds of Chennai, ranging from Karnataka in the south to the northern states of Punjab and
Haryana.
A similar phenomenon occurred in Hyderabad beginning in the seventies, when a couple of banks there started recruiting cricketers to form teams of their own to take part in the Hyderabad Cricket Association league and knockout tournaments. Though State Bank of India, and to some extent, State Bank of Hyderabad had already done so in the sixties, it was after Andhra Bank and Syndicate Bank got into the act in the 1970s that the movement began to gain momentum.
M N Prabhakar Raju, a left arm spinner from Andhra was a regular for State Bank of India, while B Ramprasad, a fine batsman, was a prominent performer for State Bank of Hyderabad. All-rounder B Mahendra Kumar, whose leg spin and middle order batting were of very high quality, came to Hyderabad from Andhra and, in fact, played for both Andhra and Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy.
When Andhra Bank opened its doors of employment to cricketers, it took in a number of youngsters from Andhra: left arm all-rounder D Meher Baba, fast bowler H Ramprasad, all-rounders M N Ravi Kumar and Bhaskara Ramamurthy, wicket-keeper batsmen K N Charan and Prasanna Kumar were some of these talented cricketers who honed their skills on the grounds of Hyderabad and
Secunderabad.
Syndicate Bank went on a recruitment drive soon after Andhra Bank. The elegant left hander Jugal Kishore Ghia and hard hitting batsman Chamundeswarnath were among the Andhra lads who strengthened the team.
These imports from Andhra improved with every season spent playing in the Hyderabad league that was more competitive than any cricket they could get back in their hometowns. Soon they formed the nucleus of a strong Andhra team that managed to upset more fancied opponents in the zone, such as Tamil Nadu and Hyderabad, and regularly came out successful against Kerala. Meher Baba, H Ramprasad, Bhaskara Ramamurthy, his brother Kamaraju (who played for State Bank of India), Ravi Kumar, Ghia, and Chamundeswarnath were all sooner or later selected to represent South Zone in the Duleep and Deodhar Trophies or against international teams touring India.
As long as players from Andhra could find employment in the twin cities or Chennai where some of them migrated to when jobs became scarce in Hyderabad, their cricket kept improving and, eventually, Andhra entered the Ranji Trophy knockout in the eighties and performed creditably. The trend has been reversed somewhat after the job market dwindled in these centres. They certainly added colour and variety to cricket in Hyderabad.
V Ramnarayan
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