Sankapani Cricketer Turned Businessman

For a period in the 80s, VV Sankapani (Sanku in the cricketing circles) was spoken of in the same vein as Srikkanth for his dashing style of play. At the peak of his career, he had offers from leading organisations including MRF, Indian Bank, RBI and the Income Tax. However, he rejected each of those tempting offers preferring the partnership with his long time friend and Indian cricketing legend K Srikkanth and played for several years for TVS Alwarpet opening alongside Cheeka. Huge crowd gathered wherever Alwarpet played just to watch the two of them bat together with discussions centered on who would outshine the other that day. On many occasions, Sankapani won that battle. He scored 10 centuries for Alwarpet and an equal number of 90s. He always sported a smile and was a happy go lucky cricketer and one of the big entertainers in the city league cricket in the 80s. 

Two decades later, I umpired a lower division league match at Vivekananda College where Sankapani scored a typically blistering century. After many years for Alwarpet in the shadow of Srikkanth, Sanku moved in the direction of many of the cricketers who belonged to the second category – he played through the early 20s hoping for the big break. He was on the verge of a Buchi Babu Tourney debut before losing that to Alwarpet teammate K Ravishankar. While he remained a crowd favourite, he could not break through to the state level (the grandmas of Mylapore did not like him though for he consistently broke the window panes of the apartments near the PS School ground with pulls and swipes that went well past the tall Western wall of the ground). !!! 

By the time he realized that he would not be able to make it to the state team, he was already well into his 20s and past his prime. During his period of his success at Alwarpet as a professional cricketer, he received a great offer for the role of ‘Inspector’ at Income Tax but he continued his cricketing stint with Alwarpet (where he was paid a ‘cricketing fee’) choosing Srikkanth’s partnership as far more valuable than a Government posting. 

Later for a brief period, he looked like having settled down at Oriental Insurance but an office job did not seem to captured his imagination. Half a mind was on cricket and the other half questioned the need for financial security in life with a family behind him. And he quit the insurance firm to make a foray into the share market, with the hope of making it big but that decision did not go off well, financially. 

He had been one of the most consistent batsmen for South Zone in the inaugural edition of this inter Zonal U15 tourney in the late 1970s. In a rare move, he signed up with first division team Globe Trotters as his first league team before he was 15 years. The string of big scores that included a belligerent 73 against Central Zone helped him get into the National U19 summer camp. But as luck would have it the U19 tour of Sri Lanka was called off due to the ethnic problem. That was the closest Sanku came to National Selection. 

For a high quality cricketer from his teenage days, he spent a decade in financial insecurity. The IPL like it has done for many cricketers in the city provided him a ray of hope with a cricketing managerial opportunity that came his way. For a year, he was in a powerful post as the Operations Head of SRH (the Hyderabad team) coming into close contact with the biggest stars of World Cricket. But for an entertainer that he was, this engagement proved far too taxing for Sanku, both physically and mentally. And he chose not to take it up after the first year. 

When the TNPL was launched, he donned the role of the COO of Karaikudi Kaalai, a team owned by Chettinad Cements. He had known MAMR Muthiah for many years and he accepted this role. It seemed that he was once again in a top position before Chettinad decided to sell off the franchise leaving Sankapani almost jobless once again. During this period, he also took on the 'honorary' role of managing a lower division league team as the President of the club and he continues in that role to this day. Life after IPL and TNPL once again became a struggle as he lived on meager income. 

And that’s when he got yet another fresh lease of life. MAMR Muthiah, his God Father now in the Cements business, offered him the cements agency business. In the last three years, he has once again been on the ground (not the cricket ground) understanding the nuances of the cement business and building a strong customer relationship. He has spent the time meeting hundreds of builders, contractors and masons and striking cement deals with them. He is now hoping to make a difference to the Small and Medium Builders and Contractors. He is personally involved in creating a Personalised Structured Plan for each one of them based on their requirement and cash flow, thereby creating value for them. That understanding of the customer is his biggest strength and that’s the value addition he has brought to the customer. As he moved into the cement agency business, two big groups straight away supported Sankapani signing up with his firm for the entire project. 

Just when things were looking up, Covid 19 hit his business hard. While April was really bad with the complete lockdown, there was a semblance of business coming back end of May. But this fortnight in June, he has something to really cheer about. Builders, contractors and masons, especially the small and medium ones, have all got back to work and this has reflected in the rise in enquiries for Sanku. While the enquiries are cheering him up, he feels it will be at least another quarter before he can be more confident about the way forward for his business. 

Into the future, he is looking to take cement dealership as well as foraying into the Ready Mix Concrete business, both of which will be capital intensive. One of his big challenges has been the lack of funding from financial institutions. He is hopeful that they will begin to finance the working capital requirements of the sector that he believes will help kick start the business again in the post lock down scenario. 

Like his batting at the top of the order, Sankapani has always flattered to deceive. Every now and then, he has given the hope of having found something to his liking but has pulled out just when one thought he had settled down. From a riveting teenage phase when he was a much feared opening batsman to losing out to his Alwarpet teammate in the Buchi Babu tourney, Sankapani experienced the highs and lows in cricket in the 1980s and early 90s. The decades after his cricketing phase has been a lot more challenging as Sankapani in the last two decades and more moved from a stable insurance job to the volatile share market, made his re-entry into cricket with IPL and TNPL and  has finally seemed to have found his place in the business world. 

With the three year experience in the Cement Sector, Sankapani now seems to be enjoying life more than ever before and is confident about his prospects. He has created a website for his firm and has even begun making power point presentations to his customers. For this great cricket entertainer from the 1980s, the cements business may yet become his biggest success story. One will have to wait and watch as to how things unfold over the next few years.