Impressed with his swing bowling, Legendary Indian Cricketer Lala Amarnath saw him as a great prospect
The Prodigious in-swing bowler gave up an opportunity to be coached at the Alf Gower Academy in the UK in the 1950s to focus on academics and a brewing Corporate Career
“If you are taking up cricket with an eye on playing for the State and higher, you may have to start from scratch in the industry after your cricketing days and the possibility of your success in the industry will be delayed to that extent” - Legendary Industrialist TS Santhanam told his son Ram in the 1950s
For a few years in the 1950s, this young boy looked like he would be the next fast bowling prospect for Tamil Nadu. After spending the early years of his life in Madurai - World War II had taken the legendary industrialist and his father TS Santhanam back to Madurai (from Madras), the boy came back to Madras in 1947 and enjoyed the best phase of his sporting life. But his father’s strong message and a shoulder injury put paid to his sporting interests and he went on to lead a global auto components firm. Here’s the cricketing story of the 80 year old S Ram, Chairman, Wheels India Ltd., and Director, Sundaram Finance Ltd.
Playing alongside Nasser Hussain’s Father
After returning from Madurai a couple of years after the Second World War ended, Ram joined MCC High School in Chetput. Along with PS High School, MCC was in the forefront of cricket in the city largely driven by the Headmaster, Kuruvilla Jacob, who believed that Sports was just as important as Studies in building and shaping one’s personality. He encouraged the students to indulge themselves in sporting activity and laid the basic foundation for many budding cricketers. Jawad Hussain, father of former England Captain and now a renowned commentator Nasser Hussain, was the school captain when Ram joined the school (Jawad went on to play one Ranji Trophy match for TN). PK Belliappa who too went on to play for Tamil Nadu was also Ram’s team mate at MCC High School (It was only from the 1970s and 80s that schools such as St. Bedes, Santhome and Don Bosco took over cricket domination in the city that has continued to this day).
Practicing on Mud Wicket at D’Silva Road home
It was on the mud wicket at Santhanam’s house on D’Silva Road in Mylapore (now it’s renowned for a tennis court where Ramanathan Krishnan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2015/03/ramanathan-krishnan.html) and his son Ramesh coach the TVS family) that Ram’s emergence as a fast bowler began. He would practice there with his new ball bowling partner KP Geethakrishnan (who later went on to become an IAS officer). Santhanam was a sporting enthusiast and as early as the 1940s, he ran a football team in Madurai called the ‘Madurai Greens’ that gave the best in the business a run for their money in domestic football league. And his interest in Tennis is well known. He was excited about a Tirunelveli districts boy doing well and encouraged Ramanathan Krishnan (from Tenkasi) all the way to his success at Wimbledon.
Ramanathan Krishnan remembers those moments “Santhanam would always cheer me from the stands and that boosted my confidence and my performance at Wimbledon. He also supported me financially and helped build my career in Tennis.”
Cricket probably was a distant third in Santhanam’s sporting interests but he did not dissuade this talented fast bowler from taking to cricket. Ram’s younger brother S Viji (Chairman of Sundaram Finance Ltd.,) too was more interested in Tennis ( though he did play cricket alongside Sanmar’s N Sankar) and continues to play to this day at the tennis court on D’Silva Road. It was Ram and his other brother Rangarajan who took to cricket in a serious way. Santhanam also handed Ram a season ticket for the test match in Madras against the West Indies soon after they had returned to Madras.
In-Swingers/Leg Cutters a nightmare for Openers
In the hot and humid conditions in Madras, the curd rice eating Ram surprisingly turned out to be a big in-swing bowler. Often he spearheaded the MCC school to victory with this difficult to trace inswingers that either bowled the batsmen or trapped them LBW. He was not one of those run of the mill fast bowlers who would be used to just remove the shine of the ball. He also bowled leg cutters. In his very first match for the school, Ram took 6 wickets for three runs that catapulted him into instant limelight and everyone took notice of this swing bowler in Madras.
80 year old former State Selector SVS Mani (TN won the Ranji Trophy in 1988 when he was a selector) played many matches for PS High School against Ram in those school days in the 1950s and has everlasting memories of those years especially the two finals played in front of a big crowd “MCC school had a strong team in cricket in those years and Ram was the opening bowler, whose in-swing the opposition openers feared. He had a very different action (bowling around the head) similar to that of Surendranath (he played for Services and alongside Ramakant 'Tiny' Desai for India) and could not be easily found out by the batsmen. Most often in those years, MCC and PS High School would feature in the inter schools final. In the first year, they beat us with Ram doing well with the ball. The next year we had our revenge beating a strong MCC at the RKM ground in T Nagar. Difficult it may be for the new generation to believe, a huge crowd watched us contest the competitive final at RKM and it was a great experience for all of us to play in front of such of a big crowd.”
Impresses Lala Amarnath
Ram also captained MCC in his last year at school. Buoyed by his performance at school, he began bowling at the BS Nets (at the North end of Chepauk). It was there during one of his bowling sessions that Ram encountered one of his biggest moments in Cricket. The legendary Lala Amarnath who was coaching at that time in Madras was mightily impressed with the swing that this teenager produced and taught him some of the nuances of swing to build on his inherent talent. He saw Ram as a good fast bowling prospect“I count those moments of praise and receiving fast bowling tips from this legend of Indian Cricket as one of my greatest in my cricketing life.”
In those years at school, one of the greats of TN cricket V Pattabhiraman (for decades, in both Ranji and Test Matches played at Chepauk, commentators referred to bowlers coming to bowl from the North end as running from the ‘Pattabhiraman’ Gate End) watched him bowl against Mysore and Hyderabad and was impressed. He spotted the ‘swinging’ talent in Ram and motivated him to work hard in cricket.
Against Kundaren for the South Zone Schools Team
After sterling performances in school cricket, Ram was chosen alongside SVS Mani and JR Maruthi as the three cricketers from Madras to represent the South Zone schools in the all India Tournament in 1956 and they made their way to Pune to play in the tournament. SVS Mani recounts memories from that trip “We were excited to be selected for an all India tournament. After winning the first match, we came up against B Kundaren (West Zone- he later went on to play for India) in the second. He scored a century against us. Ram was an exciting prospect that year and could have easily gone on to a higher level but he decided to focus on education and went into his father’s business later on. His exit was a loss for TN cricket.”
Two decades later Barath Reddy captained the Indian Schools to the UK. (
A Prestigious Opportunity - Fast Bowling Training in the UK
Pattabhiraman was keen to tap into Ram’s talent and suggested his name for being coached at the Alfred Gower fast bowling coaching in the UK, a MRF Pace Foundation (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2013/08/ta-sekar-architect-behind-worlds-best.html?m=1) equivalent from those days. It would have been a life transforming stint in the UK and could have pushed Ram into the next grade in cricket, possibly a move up into the state level. Those in South Zone schools were the ones who were monitored closely and their performances tracked for consideration at the next level.
A strong message from his Father
He was 16 at that time. The academic space was quite competitive and getting into the best engineering college was not a given thing.It was at that crucial moment as a teenager when he was on the verge of entering college that Ram encountered this strong message, almost as a warning, from the Auto Legend of Indian Industry ‘Cricket is a serious matter. I am not saying NO. You are going to get into college soon. If you are taking up cricket with an eye on playing for the State and higher, you may have to start from scratch in the industry after your cricketing days and the possibility of your success in the industry will be delayed to that extent” Santhanam told his son Ram at his house in Mylapore.
A Shoulder Injury -D'Silva Road Tennis Court
Like all youngsters who face this predicament, Ram had to choose between Cricket and a prospective career in the Auto Industry. And he decided on the latter. This phase also coincided with Ram encountering a serious shoulder injury. While playing Tennis with his brother Rangarajan on that court on D’Silva Road next to Alladi Krishnamurthy’s house, he banged his shoulder against the wall in an attempt to return a volley. That along with his father’s message put paid to the prospective cricketing career of Ram.
It was a difficult decision to make at that time to give up a sport that he had enjoyed so much in the previous few years and at a time when he was on the top of his game. The young boy gathered all the courage that he could muster and went up to the great Pattabhiraman to inform him of his inability to make it to the UK and about his decision to give up cricket. It was a decision that Pattabhiraman could not easily digest for he was of the view that Ram had it in him to make it big in cricket, especially since swing bowlers were a rarity in state cricket (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/05/promodh-sharma-cricketer-turned.html).
Prodigious Swing in Birmingham
Ram joined Guindy Engineering College and played cricket for fun for three years at college. But he gave up on TNCA league cricket. In the early 1960s, he went to the Birmingham University, a few kms from that beautiful Test Ground at Edgbaston, to do his Masters in Production Engineering. In the two years that he was there, he played summer cricket in the beautiful green grounds in Birmingham and he relived cricket once again in much more favourable bowling conditions “I was able to swing the ball prodigiously and most of the players were surprised that this bowler from India could swing the ball so much. But my cricket stint there in the UK was more as a social gathering for I had given up serious cricketing interest long back.”
Looking back on that decision of Ram, SVS Mani is disappointed that the swing bowler gave up cricket very early in his life but is pragmatic about it being the right decision“He was in good form and the fact that he was a natural swing bowler gave him an edge. But there was a business to take care of in the future and Ram decided against cricket.”
In his later years, he played a few matches for Sundaram Motors in the Sports and Pastime Tourney alongside NV Seshadri, M Subramaniam and the late Sridhar.
His father Santhanam told him very early on in his school days, a message that he remember almost seven decades later ‘Sports teaches you to work closely with others and helps you win as a team.” The few years in cricket taught Ram a great deal and helped build his personality that has held him in good stead all through his life. For starters, he made a lot of friends through cricket “One can win a few matches on his own but for the large part one has to play as a team to win the Trophy. The same philosophy of building a strong team holds good in the corporate world as well” says Ram looking back at the learning from those cricketing years.
The soft spoken Ram used his early cricketing experience in building a strong team spirit and bonding among the workers and colleagues over the last five decades at the Padi, Madras headquartered auto components firm Wheels India (Revenues of over Rs. 3000 cr in 2019), where he was the Managing Director for almost three decades from the mid 1970s before handing it to his son Srivats, who has been running the firm over the last decade or so. Had he taken a cricketing call in the late 1950s, Ram may have gone on to play for the State and carved a name for himself in the state’s cricketing history. But he decided otherwise leaving us to ponder on what might have been!!!