R Chandrasekaran SBI Globe Trotter

R Chandrasekaran spent his teenage years at No. 32 Kutcheri Road, a landmark house just two buildings away from the Post Office starting off playing tennis ball cricket in the huge verandah of that house. When he was 15 years old, he began playing cricket for PS High School where his elder brother Nagarajan captained the school team (he played Buchi Babu and for Indian Schools). In 1951, Chandrasekaran played for Madras Schools in the TNCA 2nd division league as a 15 year old. In his last year at PS High, he captained the school to trophies in the inter school tournament. 

It was Vivekananda college captain M Suryananarayanan, grandson of Buchi Babu, who initiated the thought of Chandrasekaran getting into Vivekananda College. By the time he was 17, he had begun playing first division league cricket for TUC. Short on money, he could not pay Rs. 25 that was expected from the college players to make it into tournaments and for outstation trips. But he performed outstandingly for the college. He was the best batsman for the Vivekananda college in 1954 and 55. In those early years, he did not have money even to buy cricket shoes and it was Ramanathan, an engineer from Benaras Hindu University (later at Blue Star) who sponsored his cricket shoes in the mid 1950s.In the first year of its initiation, he won the T Srinivasaraghavan scholarship for the best collegiate cricketer. 

Immediately after graduating from the college, he joined Sundaram Motors, handpicked by (TVS) R Ratnam and worked under the wheels, something he did not particularly enjoy in the eight months there. An extraordinary turn of events in January 1957 within months of him joining the auto firm was to lead him to play alongside the legends of Indian cricket that decade. Former Ranji Player AK Sarangapani, a salesman at Sundaram Motors,organised a practice match between TVS /Sundaram Motors and SBI, one in which Chandrasekaran played for Sundaram Motors. So impressed was the then captain of SBI T Krishnamurthy with his performance that day that he asked Chandrasekaran to write the banking exam (there was no sports quota job at that time). And within two months, Chandrasekaran joined SBI in March of 1957, much to the dislike of Ratnam.

While SBI was to provide long term financial security, it dented his cricketing growth in the 2nd half of the 1950s. SBI was in lower division of the TNCA league and thus Chandrasekaran who had already played first division cricket at that time went back to lower division cricket after joining SBI. He lost out on playing 1st division cricket for a few years till SBI made its way to the first division. For Chandrasekaran, as with any middle class family of the time, job stability was important and a bank job provided that. It was not until he was 25 that he played first division cricket again. During this period, he played junior cricket for the state where he also came up against EAS Prasanna of Mysore. 

He also played for RS Puram Cricket Club in the Tripanathura Tournament and performed exceedingly well to help the Coimbatore club win the tourney. So impressed was the secretary of the Kerala cricket association that he asked Chandrasekaran to take a (bank) transfer to Kerala so he could play for the state in the Ranji Trophy. His outstanding form at that time would have made him an automatic choice for the state. Had he made the move, he could have easily played for several years for Kerala in the Ranji Trophy. Unfortunately SBI refused to provide him the transfer for they wanted him to play in the local league and the tournaments here. 

The first half of the 1960s proved to be his best period in cricket and paradoxically also one with extreme disappointments. 

The tall and lean mustachioed Chandrasekaran performed extraordinarily well for SBI in all tournaments and received rave reviews. Soon after SBI Madras met Bombay in the final of the All India State Bank tournament Indian captain Nari Contractor was so impressed with Chandrasekaran that he said that 'Madras had found a good off spinner and one with great potential."

Not just that, he wanted Chandrasekaran to play in the Times Shield Tournament that immediately followed the inter circle tourney. Unfortunately for Chandrasekaran, it coincided with the Sport and Pastime tourney (The Hindu Trophy) in Madras and his Bank did not permit him to go Bombay, even though the invitation came from none other than the Indian captain. Had he gone and played under Contractor, his cricketing life may have taken a different turn. But it was not to be. It was also around that time when he received a big offer from Parrys & Co following his star performances with the bat and ball but SBI did not permit him to leave convincing him of good prospects at the bank. 

He took 54 wickets in 11 matches in the first division league in 1961-62. In the next year, he topped the bowling averages ahead of the upcoming S Venkataraghavan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/04/venkataraghavan75.html) and Kripal Singh, who cherished ambitions of playing for the country as an all rounder (a batsman who could bowl spin). In 62-63, he easily took more wickets in the first division than these two and claimed over a 100 wickets for SBI in all forms of cricket that year. With the bat, he had scored 8 centuries for SBI including 176 against a very strong Bombay State Bank and was clearly an all rounder who could excel in both. He also received the award for the Best Performance in the Sport and Pastime tourney. 

He once picked up 12 wickets in a single day, quite a rare achievement in a one day TNCA first division league match, picking up 7wickets in the first innings and then picking up 5 in the 2nd innings to bowl out Crom Best twice in a day. Everyone that followed TN cricket expected him to go a long way. However, what followed was tragic and left him bitterly disappointed and frustrated at that time. 

That call is still vivid in Chandrasekaran’s memory "My mother was unwell and I had to be by her bedside to take care of her health. I explained to Sriraman the scenario at home. Unfortunately a ‘NO’ to Sriraman did not go well with the powers that be." 

It was also in this phase that SBI organised a tournament for first division clubs in the city in an endeavour to provide more opportunities to players. Chandrasekaran anchored the organising of this tournament. He remembers the backlash "Sriraman was clearly unhappy with SBI organising a tournament in the city. We clearly indicated to them that this was to provide more playing opportunities to the cricketers in the city. As I was the man doing the work on the ground, I was targeted and my hopes of playing for the state were dashed."

Frustrated at not being considered for the Ranji Trophy after outstanding performance in 3-4 successive years in the first division league, Chandrasekaran stood for the post of the Treasurer of the TNCA (then MCA) in June 1964 leaving Sriraman stunned. It turned out to be the final nail in the coffin for Chandrasekaran for he was never considered for Madras again in Ranji Trophy cricket. His refusal to join the Ranji squad when his mother was ill, the organising of the inter club tournament in the city and him standing for the Treasurer's post combined to ensure that he would never be considered again.  These series of events brought a premature end to his Ranji career, almost before it started!!! 

Legendary leg spinner VV Kumar (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2007/07/cricket-tales-exclusive-with-vv-kumar.html) was a year senior to him at PS High School and knew him from his days as a teenager. He captained Chandrasekaran at SBI and was a good foil for him as the two bowled in tandem through the 1960s and 70s. He also used to drive Chandrasekaran to his office on his two wheeler every morning in the 1960s. He says that it was ridiculous of the TN selection committee to not consider him despite strong performances in the first division league “Chandru was an automatic choice in the All India State Bank team that comprised of international bowlers. He took wickets in the first division league and in all other tournaments for SBI. Why the TN selectors never considered him against after a strong Ranji debut and consistent performance in the league defeats any logic. He was not given the rightful chances.” 

VV Kumar says that Chandru should have competed more vigorously after finding that the selectors were not considering him and leaving him out deliberately “He should have fought his way back into the team but maybe he was frustrated that the selectors continued to ignore him despite strong performances in the league.” 

In August 1966, he was selected for the All India State Bank team that was to tour Ceylon for a series of matches against a strong Prime Minister’s XI in Colombo. Chief of SBI N Ramanand Rao who was the transformative sporting force at the bank and who roped in cricketers and made them the cricketing force that they were in the 60s and 70s wrote of the team that went to Ceylon “Our team blends enthusiasm with experience and includes a number of promising young cricketers in addition to Test Stars.” 

The bank team comprised of top Indian and Ranji Trophy players including Wadekar, Goel and VV Kumar. Bowling alongside star bowlers such as VV Kumar and Rajender Goel against the likes of Michael Tissera and Stanley Jayasinghe, Chandrasekaran picked up 4 wickets in the match.

Ramanand Rao would come to the ground and watch every match of SBI and he landed up one rainy morning at the house of Chandrasekaran and asked him as to what he was doing at home on a match day. When he remarked that the match was likely to be rained off as the rain had been rather heavy, the Chief told him that the game would definitely start with the groundsmen at work. He drove him to the match and watched Chandrasekaran pick up 8 wickets after lunch to help the bank win against Bunts. When the newspaper headlined the next day as Chandrasekaran helping SBI win, the Chief joking remarked that that it was his role in driving him to the ground that helped the bank record the victory. 

By the mid 1960s, Chandrasekaran realized that the politics at work was too strong and he accepted the fact that he would not be considered for the state. It was the frustration of being ignored despite extraordinary performances that led him to take to umpiring. The umpiring fee for a match was just Rs. 3 that decade when he started out. A ticket for umpires for the pongal test was a big motivation. One had to umpire a certain number of matches before January to be eligible for this ‘umpire’s ticket’. In the early 70s, there was invitation to him to appear for the BCCI Umpiring exam but as with other cricketing events in his life in the previous decade, he was away in Europe at that time and missed out on progressing ahead in his umpiring life. 

Once he reconciled that the TNCA had shut out his cricket for non cricketing reasons, he began to focus on his work at the bank. In 1966, he was promoted as an officer. He also passed exams such as CAIIB, Diploma in Industrial finance. Shortly after, when he was in foreign exchange department, he came in contact with many overseas visitors who made a trip to India in their two wheelers. That inspired him and triggered the thought in him to try and see if he too could do an overseas trip on a two wheeler. 

Lambretta was in great demand that decade. He approached the firm to see if they could hand out a few Lambys to him and his three friends for this overseas trip. They could not give it free but did an out of turn delivery of three Lambys. In the summer of 1971, Chandrasekaran along with PVH Babu, GV Venugopal and R Lakshmanan went on a three month 7000kms 15 countries European trip via Bombay, Kuwait and London. The globetrotting trip of 1971 was repeated in 1974 with his footballer brother Mohanakrishnan and KRS Mani (SBI). Cho Ramaswamy helped him raised funds for the trips by organizing a special edition of his then popular Mohammad Bin Tuglagh. KS Narayanan of India Cements too helped him on those two trips as did his classmate A Krishnamurthy of Simpsons. 

This Globe Trotting led Chandrasekaran to name his new league team in 1975 as Globe Trotters (introduced into the league after winning the Ranga Rao Trophy), a team that went up to the first division in five straight years under the captaincy of G Srinivasan. VB Chandrasekar(https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/01/vb-chandrasekar.html) played for Globe Trotters when he was just 16. In the 1980s, for over 5 years, he handed the team to Udumalpet SVPB’s Soundararajan to run Globe Trotters ( https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2018/06/svpb-udumalpet-soundararajan.html) in the first division league. Soon after, Venkataraghavan came to him and requested him to hand over the team permanently to MRF (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2013/08/ta-sekar-architect-behind-worlds-best.html) which he did. 

After his globetrotting experience, Chandrasekaran began taking a combined squad from here to overseas destinations for a 10 day cricketing tour to play against leading local clubs in Malaysia, Singapore, Canada, USA and even the Maldives. In May 1973, he went on a trip to Kuala Lumpur with players such as Hanumant Singh, Ambar Roy, GRV, SMH Kirmani, AG Milkha Singh, Abdul Jabbar and his brother R Prabhakar. 

Top cricketers from Karnataka including AV Jayaprakash, B Vijayakrishna, G Kasturi Rangan, B. Raghunath, PR Ashok Anand, BS Viswanath and Narayana Raju were part of the trips to the UK and the Far East. P Mukund, VBC, M Subramaniam and D Padmanabhan too were part of these tours from TN.

Looking back on the overseas tour, Karnataka batsman and BCCI Umpire AV Jayaprakash says ‘Chandrasekaran showed me the world’. It was a phase when legendary leggie BS Chandrasekar was the room mate of R Chandrasekaran on cricketing trips. R Chandrasekaran considers the cricketers from Karnataka as being most respectful in their conduct ‘Even the top most cricketers from the state including some who played for the country would fall at my feet when they met me as I was many years senior in age. They have been like this for several decades. The cricketing success just did not get on to their head and the big cricketers from Karnataka have remained unchanged in the way they have interacted over a long period of time, even after they played state cricket for two decades and cricket for India.'

MCC v Combined XI at Chepauk 

During that phase, Chandrasekaran also put together combined teams to play practice matches against MCC on Saturday afternoons. There was stiff competition to figure in that Combined XI for it was a great experience for many who had hitherto never played at Chepauk. An added incentive was the tiffin and coffee at MCC at the end of the match. 

In the mid 90s, Chandrasekaran was the treasurer of the TNCA for a couple of years when Ashok Kumbhat was the Secretary and was also team manager of TN. In the 1980s and 90s and later as well, and long before the ICA (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/07/ica-on-track.html) came into being, he was vocal on the changes needed in the system and wrote several letters to the BCCI pitching for changes for the betterment of the system and for the players to be taken care of, better including pension to players who had played less than 25matches. And he continues to engage with the likes of Ashok Malhotra (the ICA President) sharing ideas.

Octogenarian Chandrasekaran has had a truly celebrated life. A First Class Cricketer, Umpire, Match Referee, Treasurer, Scorer, Selector, Manager, Owner of multiple TNCA league teams, committee member at the TNCA and a Globe Trotter who took teams many times overseas on cricket trips. He should have easily played more matches for the state but non cricketing reasons led him to be discarded for ever. He could have played many for Kerala but his bank refused to grant him a transfer. Despite terrific performances in the league, Chandrasekar had many disappointments and frustrating moments in cricket in the 1960s but he saw the downturns as part of one’s life and took it in his stride. He turned a great admininstrator making personal globe trotting trips along with colleagues, running cricket clubs in the city and organising cricketing tours that offered several cricketers opportunities to play overseas.  In 2010, aged 75, he took a team comprising of teenagers to Colombo to play a series of matches such has been his passion for the game. At a point of time in his life, Chandrasekaran ran four league teams in the city – Globe Trotters, Rising Stars, BRC and Magnet. He continues to run Magnet Cricket Club in the TNCA league to this day. 

If he had not joined SBI, he may have ended up as a salesman at Sundaram Motors. Instead he enjoyed well over a decade of playing with the who’s who of Indian cricket. He played first division cricket for SBI for 15 years at the peak alongside the likes of the non controversial SVS Mani (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/07/svs-mani-cricketer-selector-coach.html) when they won several championships, rose to the level of AGM at the bank and remained a strong contributor to the bank throughout his career.  Several 100s of wickets for SBI in the early 1960s could not earn him more than one Ranji Match and he was hugely disappointed  at the decision of the TNCA to keep him away from Ranji Trophy matches but at 85 he is proud that he came out of that and continued his association with cricket in various capacities for another 45 years .