MS Gurumurthy YSCA Somasundaram Ground

As a 14 year old RKM school boy, MS Gurumurthy, along with Srinivasan, launched, in 1956, an ‘academy’ that brought together boys in T Nagar to play ‘Tennis Ball five day Test Cricket’ at the Somasundaram Ground. Several of them went up the ranks and played for the state and one even for the country. He himself was a medium pacer and opening bat (a wicket keeper once in a while!!) and played U25 for the state. In 1970, he launched, at the RKM ground, an annual 30 over tournament that later gained national prominence and has now completed 50 summers. With over a 100 cricketers practicing in different divisions, almost a quarter of the Somasundaram ground was once occupied with Guru’s players!!! On many days, the members also played cricket under the lights at the nearby basketball court at the West end of the ground after the tennis ball test match.

Brothers K Bharathan and K Srinivasan rose from the Somasundaram ground to national heights. Bharathan played in the famous Ranji Final for Railways against TN in 1988, while Srinivasan is now a Top 10 Umpire in India. S Srinivasan played Ranji cricket for Bombay and TN.  S Ravi, who played both tennis ball and league cricket for Guru team in the 1970s, went on to become an Elite Panel Umpire. TN opener from the early 1990s ‘Sunny’ Ramesh was another who played the formative years of his cricket at the Somasundaram ground. S Suresh, who has just been appointed as the Chairman of the Cricket Advisory Committee and who captained TN to successive Ranji finals, learnt his cricket basics from Gurumuthy at the Somasundaram ground in the 1980s. Kalpathi Aghoram, former VP of TNCA and co founder of SSI / Kalpathi Investments too is a product of YSCA. TA Sekar, the biggest of them all having played for India in the 1980s, learnt how to bowl fast, at Guru’s Somasundaram ground nets.

Here is the story of the man who has provided a cricketing platform for upcoming cricketers for over 60 years. 

RKM School boy MS Gurumurthy (Guru) was just 14 when one evening in 1956 he discussed the launch of a formal cricket academy with his senior and friend Srinivasan, another cricket enthusiast. Thus was launched YSCA (Young Stars Cricket Association) 54 years ago. Till 1978, there were four divisions within Guru Team - Division A for office goers, B for collegians, C for High schoolers and D for lower classes.  Division A and B went to the ‘Nets’ on a matting wicket while players in Division C and D played Tennis Ball cricket (Tennis Ball Test cricket at YSCA continued till 2000 when it was discontinued after almost 45 years).

Every year on the occasion of the annual day, players would eagerly await the announcement of promotions into higher division based on the performance of the previous year. Each of the divisions comprised of at least 25players.

He bought the first mat from YMCA Nandanam for Rs. 100 and paid Rs. 15 as a full day rent for the RKM school ground. In 1962, aged just 20, he took charge of a league team (NSC B). Since then, for almost six decades he has been running at least one league team in the city every year. He also joined LIC that year (1962) and worked there for four decades, during which he was the Recreation Club and Union Secretary for over 15years.

Gurumurthy set in motion a disciplined process at the YSCA “Every player had to sign an attendance register. Those who turned late for (the tennis ball) matches would not bat that day!!! There were score sheets maintained for every match. Those who played well in tennis ball cricket graduated to league cricket. Youngsters from the team also doubled up as scorers and umpires.”

He would be there every evening at the Somasundaram ground with the noise of that distinctive Rajdoot that was heard far away alerting the wards that the ‘Cricketing Guru’ had arrived.

Those who graduated from Gurumurthy’s YSCA were seen with a special regard within cricket and outside for he instilled a great sense of discipline and character in the young boys. Former Bombay and TN State cricketer S Srinivasan had the formative years of his cricket at the Somasundaram ground remembers how difficult it was to gain entry into the YSCA “One could not easily get into the Guru team even if it was for tennis ball matches. One had to get a credible referral to join his team. My uncle at LIC, a colleague of Gurumurthy, had to refer me to him for him to absorb me into his tennis ball team.”

Centuries flowed from Srinivasan’s bat in the tennis ball 5 day test matches and he credits those long duration matches for vetting his appetite for runs!!! An impressed Guru took him into Rising Stars, a team that he was managing at that time “The team for the league match would be written on a note pad one day in advance and we all gathered as a team at his house on Lakshmi Narasimhan Street and went to the ground as one team. Such was the spirit he developed among the team members.”

And the incentive every day for an outstanding performance was a Kulfi.

60 year old Kalpathi Aghoram was in class VIII when he was first coached by Gurumurthy at RKM, a year they won the schools tournament. He is particularly pleased that Guru has remained passionate for this length of time “Even though cricket has evolved into a financially lucrative sport, Guru has not monetised his cricket experience. He continues to carry out the cricket activities for the love of the game and his passion clearly comes through in everything he does in cricket.”

In 1969, as he was passing by the RKM ground (opp Jeeva Park), it struck him to use his ‘home’ ground (alumni of the school) to start a tournament that would also give his YSCA team to play in a knock out tournament. And thus began in 1970 an annual 30 over tourney. The players of his club served as volunteers.

Indian Railways Ranji finalist and former BCCI Umpire K Bharathan was in RKM North till class VI when Gurumurthy landed up at his house one day to meet his parents to convince them to move him to RKM Main where he was the coach. Bharathan remembers the disciplinarian Gurumurthy from the 1970s “Top teams participated in the YSCA Trophy. He would assign the volunteers for each of the 4 matches over the weekend and we had to report at the ground at sharp 7am, roll and nail the mat. One of us performed the role of a scorer and another one managed the score board. With the growing popularity of the tourney, there were also ball boys assigned to all sides of the small ground to pick the ball if it was hit out of the ground. We would be given breakfast and lunch.  We were delighted to watch the likes of V Krishnaswamy(https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/08/krishnaswamy-v.html) and V Sivaramakrishnan bat and took inspiration from that.”

From 1970, for 25 years he also took free maths class for school students. His colleague at LIC, Siva, provided him free terrace space and he took classes in two batches – one for girls and another for boys. Many of the cricketers were his Maths students as well. Bharathan remembers the expert Maths teacher

Gurumurthy roped in the well respected AE Audi Chetty to coach his students during the summer and that made an impactful difference to the boys. Gurumurthy would himself go to the Kodambakkam station to pick up Audi Chetty and bring him to the Somasundaram ground. It was Audi Chetty who taught the cricketers of the YSCA the fundamentals of cricket.

Central Zone leggie S Madhavan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2018/11/rbi-madhavan-leg-spinner.html) belonged to a middle class family. His father was far away from cricket and did not understand even the basics of the game. As was the case in those days, the ‘direction’ was to not spend too much time on the cricket field. A student of RKM North, Madhavan spent the evenings at Somasundaram ground watching the nets organized by ‘YSCA’ Gurumurthy. He was already playing for his school as a wicketkeeper batsman along with NP Sridhar (elder brother of NP Madhavan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/05/np-madhavan.html)).

Madhavan told this writer in 2018 as to how Gurumurthy inducted him straightaway into the ‘nets’ “Seeing my height and interest in cricket, Gurumurthy asked me to bowl in the ‘cricket ball nets’ alongside TA Sekar.”

One of those days, he struck Gurumurthy twice on the arm with fast paced balls leaving him furious at this school boy “He asked me to bowl a little slow and that’s when I just tried a leg break from a few steps. The ball pitched and turned square beating Gurumurthy all ends up leaving everyone stunned.”

A new leg spinner had been born that day, in rather accidental circumstances at the Somasundaram ground. So impressed was Gurumurthy that he included Madhavan in the Rising Stars league team within a few months. That was a big boost for the teenager and three years in a row he featured in the prestigious annual TNCA Colts team comprising of the best of league players. There was no looking back for Madhavan since and he went on to play for the Indian Railways and Central Zone before settling down in RBI.

The biggest name to emerge out of Guru’s YSCA has been India fast bowler and architect of the MRF Pace Foundation TA Sekar (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2013/08/ta-sekar-fastest-indian-bowler-of-1980s.html), who began with tennis ball cricket in Division C and quickly moved up. He told this writer in 2013 about Gurumurthy’s role  in his emergence as a fast bowler “ Bowling as fast as I could with the tennis ball at the Somasundaram ground is what gave me the edge with pace, years later as I went up the ladder. That stint with the Guru team at the Somasundaram ground, where I used to also roll the mat and hit the mat nails, taught a lot of discipline in addition to teaching me to bowl fast.”

Throughout the six decades of the YSCA, Gurumurthy has been very possessive of his players. Bharathan recollects the punishment meted out to them when they watched the Basketball players in action at Somasundaram ground “After our practice, we used to stay back and watch the big stars in action in the basketball floodlit tourney. He was a bit wary that at that young age we would get a bit of a fancy for that game and hence did not like us staying back late to watch those matches. Those that did would be punished the next day by letting go of their batting or bowling.”

The YSCA tourney served as a platform for the youngsters to make an impression and catch the attention of the selectors. It was a prestigious summer tournament at that time. Soon the tournament became so popular that around 75 teams began participating including leading outstation teams from Karnataka, Kerala and Bombay. With support from Indian Bank, Gurumurthy launched a flood lit final at RKM in the 1990s with temporary stands and a third umpire.  

The small RKM ground witnessed many great battles. In the 1980s, the residents often complained about broken glasses after SVPB Brijesh Patel’s lofted shots landed in their homes. And once the keeper stood almost at the boundary edge to Syndicate Bank’s Venkatesh Prasad in his youthful days!!! It was here that KN Ananthapadmanabhan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/09/ananthapadmanabhan-kn.html) won a cycle for the Player of the Series and handed it to ‘Cycle freak’ S Mahesh (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/08/s-mahesh-tn-all-rounder.html).

It was also at the RKM ground that this writer first saw the aggressive and temperamental of VB Chandrasekar (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2007/06/old-cricket-memories-my-favourite-tamil.html )at his fiery ‘worst’. He had failed to make an impression for India on its tour to New Zealand and it was one of his first matches following that. The big crowd on the Eastern side of the ground was usually a talkative one and when one of them passed a comment on VBC’s international performance (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/01/vb-chandrasekar.html), he retorted in his typically angry style ‘Vetti Pasanga.  You do not have anything else to do. That is why you come and watch these matches.’ He was never forgiven for those comments. 

Srinivasan who played for TN and South Zone Schools while still in the Guru team dedicates his growing up in cricket to Gurumurthy“He stood up to his name as Guru to many cricketers in the city. It was from him that we learnt not to be afraid of the red cherry as he set an example for all of us to be gutsy with his close in fielding. If it was not for the strong foundation that he gave us, we would not be what we are today.”

When a few years ago, Gurumurthy called Bharathan to ask if he could umpire a YSCA trophy match at NEST ground, he readily agreed “Guru gave me not just a cricketing foundation but taught me life’s valuable lessons. I would wake up at 5am and reach the summer nets well before 5.30am to get the extra 10minutes of batting that was given to those that arrived first. He asked me to wash my own clothes and four decades later that habit has stayed with me and I still wash my own clothes. Discipline, sincerity and perseverance are qualities I imbibed from Guru. If I went on to captain the Indian Railways and become a BCCI umpire, it was because of the strong foundation presented to me by Guru in the 1970s and early 80s.”

Last year, the YSCA tournament celebrated its golden jubilee with a star studded outstation team, Bank of Baroad, led by Krishnappa Gowtham beating India Cements in the final to lift the trophy on the special occasion.

At 78, Gurumurthy is still ‘cricket active’ and even this year, pre lockdown, handed his special fielding drills to his 40 plus wards. However, for the first time in almost 65years, Gurumurthy has been all alone these last nine months. His inspiration behind every cricketing step, his wife, for the last several decades passed away last year, and this combined with the Pandemic restrictions this year, has made him quite lonely at home. Watching every match of the IPL this year has been refreshing and evoked memories of the 30 over tournament he launched way back in 1970 that for a long time was seen by players as an important pre season tourney. Soon after the restrictions are lifted fully, he is looking to get back to the Somasundaram ground and to also organizing the annual day celebrations that every cricketer of YSCA has looked forward to with great expectation each year over the last six decades.