S Vasudevan Triumphant Return TN Cricket

33 years ago, TN cricket was in a fix. Legendary S Venkataraghavan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/04/venkataraghavan75.html) had retired. Following his retirement, Bharat Reddy, the wicket keeper from the 1970s captained TN but was dropped soon after (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2019/11/bharath-reddy-players-man.html). The senior most player V Sivaramakrishnan retired at the start of the season. It was the year of the World Cup, the first after India’s historic win and K Srikkanth, still in his prime, was likely to be away for a large part of the domestic season. There were some ‘very interested’ contenders who had made known their intention to lead the state side that season but the TN selectors went for the experienced Vasudevan. In the preceding ten years, he had not captained the state once. The years leading up to that season had been dominated by Delhi, Bombay and Karnataka and very few would have given the young and un-fancied TN team a chance. But in his very first year as the captain, he led TN to a Ranji Trophy victory (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/06/vasudevan-tn-ranji-trophy-retirement.html). He was (and still is) a simple and an uncomplicated man and moved well with the players, most of them then in their early 20s. He allowed them to be their own self and gave them the freedom to express themselves, something that had been sorely missing in the earlier regime. He too played a big part in the triumph contributing with the ball in what was one of his best seasons.

In the last two decades, he has been largely out of the TNCA cricket circuit (except for one off coaching stints), initially focusing on his IT/ Oracle business and then on his role as a coach of a local cricket academy with a limited number of students. It must have come as a surprise to many in the TN cricketing circles that after over 25years, he came back as a State Selector, this time as the Chairman.

And the Golden hand has done it again. After a gap of almost 15years, Tamil Nadu has won T20 trophy (they last won the T20 tourney way back in 2006-07, the inaugural year of the tournament). It must be remembered that TN has done exceptionally well in White Ball cricket in recent years (the team lost the final last year in the last ball of the match). And that is exactly what Dinesh Karthik (who was the captain in the final a decade and a half ago) brought to the notice of Vasudevan soon after his appointment as captain last month when the two met at the TNCA. The easy going Vasudevan can get to be stern when it comes to (cricketing) business and his response to DK was straight and on his face “I know that but what I want is the trophy. Nothing less will be acceptable.”

While he is known to be a quiet man, on the ground he did put his foot down with his expectations in that successful year as captain. In the very first match, he recorded the reason on the morning of the first day of the season for wanting a ‘different’ batsman (who could also bowl) and chose him ahead of the player that the Selector had written and presented as their Playing XI for the match in 1987.

Likewise, now, soon after his appointment as the Chairman, Vasudevan  set the bar high and the expectations right. The message went around to the team that this was a year when they had to go for the trophy. Another year as a finalist was not what the selectors were looking at. Vasudevan pushed up the bar right on the evening the captain was chosen. There were many setbacks for him in the early phase. M Vijay expressed his unavailability after the squad of 25 was chosen (the real reason for his announcement will be kept away from this story!!!). Vijay Sankar informed in advance that he would not be available for the knockout phase. Like a few other teams, TN had lost a few to the test squad but the youngsters came to the fore.

Vasudevan told this writer that he saw great unity in the team and there were positive vibes on the field “I felt the team entered the field with a sense of confidence and a belief that they could beat any team in the competition. Even in the matches that they were behind, they came back strong and won with ease. You did not get the feeling even once in the tournament that it would be a tense finish.”

As the Chairman, he passed on his suggestions through the tournament to the captain and the coach including on the combination for matches “Both of them were very receptive to the suggestions and it has been a very positive engagement in terms of communication with the think tank of the team through the tournament.” 

The selection of M Siddharth in the final for his first match of the tournament too was discussed between DK, Coach Vasu and Chairman Vasudevan. And he turned out to be the surprise package with a man of the match performance.

As soon as TN won the Trophy, Vasudevan told this writer that one cannot compare with the 5 day victory ( Ranji win of 1988) as T20 is totally a different ball game."I am delighted that our boys did exceptionally well as a unit. I am particularly pleased that the youngsters really did well backed up by Dinesh, KB and Aparajith."

Given the confidence built with this tournament victory that saw TN win all its matches, Vasudevan indicated that all the performers in this team were likely to get a chance in the domestic one day tournament as well to keep the continuity going and to carry this confidence into the upcoming tournament.

For a man who has been away from limelight and any cricketing association with the TNCA for long, this late comeback has been terrific. Like with his cricketing days, when he captained the team successfully a decade after his State debut, here too, the opportunity has been long overdue but within months of his appointment, TN has won a tournament after a decade and a half. He is silent most of the time to the external world but over the last couple of months, few know that he has put in several hours of background work each day on the team composition providing the inspiration from behind sitting at his third floor home in Gandhinagar.

(The star bowler of the Final, Man of the Match, M Siddharth made his debut in the TNCA league as a 11 year old under the captaincy of this writer - https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2019/09/siddharth-tamil-nadu-one-day-team.html)