The Day the India Pistons Chief gave 'Cricketing Life' to Madanagopal ![]()
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The Chairman and Managing Director of India Pistons Ltd., N Venkataramani passed away today. He joined the company in 1967 and took over as the MD in 1982. He was a Fellow of The Institute of Mechanical Engineers having completed his Masters from Imperial College London. He served on the board of Sundaram Finance Ltd., till a couple of years ago. He was a great cricket lover and promoted cricket in a big way. Legendary cricketer S Venkataraghavan and TE Srinivasan played for India Pistons in the 1980s (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/04/venkataraghavan75.html).
In the mid 1990s, he gave 'cricketing' life to a budding talent in the city and transformed the cricketer in a 15 minute chat in his room at his corporate headquarters in Nungambakkam. It was his piece of advice that kept this cricketer in the 'game' and he went on to perform creditably for Tamil Nadu in Ranji Trophy and One Day cricket.
In the second half of the 1990s, cricketer JR Madanagopal, now a top 20 BCCI umpire, was a frustrated man. The middle order batsman, then in his early 20s,had notched up consistent scores in the 1st division league in the city but he was nowhere near the state call. Also, he was shockingly left out of the Junior state team right at the toss for another 'favoured' cricketer.
Frustrated at the politics in cricket, Madanagopal was on the verge of quitting cricket. He had completed ICWA Inter and was contemplating a career in Finance.
Right at that time, he had a lucrative offer from RBI and had almost made up his mind to settle down in a career away from cricket. It was in that dark hour that the Chief of India Pistons, Venkataramani, called on him for a chat at the Company’s headquarters in Nungambakkam, a meeting that transformed the life of Madanagopal and helped him become a South Zone Cricketer.
Venkataramani suggested to Madanagopal in his room that the player was talented and that he should not give up at that stage in his career. The India Pistons Chief promised to offer all the encouragement required for him to succeed in cricket. Madangopal looks back on that day and says that it was the most professional piece of 'cricket management' advice that he had ever received. It was a great confidence booster for him in his life. Such was his passion to encourage talented cricketers that Venkataramani went out of his way to desist the 'frustrated' Madanagopal from quitting cricket.
Madanagopal went by his word, decided to stick on to cricket, rejected the offer from RBI and continued to play for India Pistons that year. And the rest as they say is history. He posted strong performance for India Pistons under the captaincy of Robin Singh. Soon after, he played for Tamil Nadu and then South Zone in Duleep Trophy. In December 1999, in his Duleep Trophy debut, he scored 84. In successive seasons in 2000-01 and 01-02, Madanagopal was Tamil Nadu’s highest run scorer in one day cricket. In both the years, he was among the top 6 in the country in domestic one day cricket out beating most of the reputed names in the state.
Venkataramani promoted cricket in a big way and India Pistons, though an underrated team in the first division league in Chennai, surprised many by reaching the finals of The Hindu Trophy and the Moin Ud Dowla All India Tournament in that phase. And the decades after, India Pistons has remained a top team in the first division league in the city, thanks mainly to the encouragement and support extended by Venkataramani.
He chose to remain a 'silent' supporter of cricket and was not often seen out there as a face promoting cricket in the city but his contribution to cricket and cricketers was significant. And in this particular case, Venkataramani gave 'cricketing life' to one, who had that morning way back in the 1990s almost given up hope. If not for Venkataramani, Cricketer Madanagopal may well have become a banker. Instead, he will soon head to the UAE to umpire in the IPL!!