PS School Ground Revival

The historical PS School Ground had been home to TNCA league cricket for well over five decades until it was shut down to external cricket matches just under a decade ago much to the disappointment of cricket fans and players. The ground has been in the news recently after the visit of the Mylapore MLA Velu who is keen to revive the ground to its ancient glory. 

For several decades, TNCA league matches were played every weekend of the league season. The big walls that we see today on the East and West sides were non existent in the past. Cricket Nets and coaching academies functioned round the year at this ground with the late TE Srinivasan having his academy at this ground. Every weekend evening, following the completion of the league matches, local boys from the neighbourhood enjoyed multiple tennis ball matches till the Sun went under the sky, played as passionately as one would at a serious league match. The arrival of October led to a deluge- monsoon rains would flood the ground and most often  it was difficult to differentiate the Kapali temple tank and the PS ground in the October to December period for the ground resembled a huge tank. But unmindful of the rain water, youngsters of the time entered the ground and indulged themselves in a game of cricket.

Now a popular theatre personality, B Bosskey (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/02/bosskey-leg-spinner-extraordinaire.html) was then a talented leg spinner in the 70s with his sights set on playing for India. He played alongside Ravi Shastri at the U25level. He has great memories of the historic PS Ground. Bosskey first entered the PS School ground in 1967 “In the October to December period, I played rubber ball cricket in neck deep water.”

In the 1970s, Bosskey became popular in the Mylapore cricket circles for handing out fielding practice. From the eastern end of the ground, with the bat in one hand, he would hit at least 100 high catches to the cricketers standing on the edge on the western side. It was also at the PS school ground that he himself sharpened his own fielding and catching. "Following intense practice at the nets here, I went on a TNCA Colts tour with WV Raman and took 55 wickets with my leg spin and that catapulted me into the next level.”

Outside of the league matches, there were school matches and some memorable old v new club matches played at the PS school ground. Bosskey remembers a match played in 1979 between BRC Past and Present teams “R Prabhakar was famously known in the city circles for hitting big sixers. And as expected, he hit me out of the ground for a huge six on to the road but the very next ball I got him out. It was a big moment for me as a youngster. I also got the wicket of legendary S Venkataraghavan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/04/venkataraghavan75.html) in that match. At the end of that day’s game, Venkat came and told me that I was highly talented and had the potential to play at the highest level. That was a morale boosting moment and I was on a high at the Western Pavilion that evening.”

In those years the pavilion was at the west end. Only later did the pavilion move into the eastern side.

Alamelumangapuram’s VV Sankapani (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/01/sankapani-vv_21.html) was the opening partner of India’s K Srikkanth for a decade playing for Alwarpet in the Chennai’s first division league and is famous for breaking the window panes in the nearby flats in the 1980s. He began his sporting life playing tennis ball cricket and football at the PS school ground. “My earliest memory of PS School ground is of me being a ball picker to big time cricketers like TA Sekar, Dhadi Sriram and Nagesh.” 

Sekar (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2013/08/ta-sekar-fastest-indian-bowler-of-1980s.html) was one of the fastest bowlers of the time and watching him bowl of that long run was a great sight for youngsters. Sanku spent his early years in cricket watching Sekar tear into batsmen but his own role was to pick the ball and throw it back to the bowler.

Tennis ball craze was at its peak in those years and tennis ball tournaments featured talented upcoming cricketers. 

Sanku recalls how he formed a young tennis ball team at PS “Motivated by this – of watching the best in action - we put together a tennis ball team from Alamelu Mangapuram called ‘Kids XI”. Most of the kids were not yet into their teens. I was one of the two seniors in that team. But we surprised everyone by reaching the final and celebrated at the ground with delicious sweets. For many years, I played in serious tennis ball tournaments during the weekends that would become the driving force for my aggressive cricket later on in my life once I grew up into league cricket. Also, every Saturday evening I would participate in highly competitive football matches.”

Sanku says that it was the coaching by India cricketer TE Srinivasan (he passed away last decade) that produced many good first division cricketers in the city “He made us face fast bowlers with one stump in hand and thats how we developed our cricket strokes. At the small pavilion, my friend Subramaniam bowled fast to me from 15yards and that helped me take on the fastest bowlers of that period without fear.”

State Cricketer from the 1960s R Chandrasekaran, now 85 says his family has a unique record at at the ground. He, along with his elder and younger brothers captained the PS School team way back in the 1950s. “My elder brother captained in 1949 and 50, then under my captaincy we won the championship in 1951. Later that decade my younger brother, R Prabhakar captained the School and played many matches at this ground.” 

The lanky off spinner remembers his first big match at the ground in 1952 “I took five wickets including a hat trick for St Marys Club at this ground in my first season in the TNCA league and thus the ground was instrumental in giving me the early confidence in bowling my off spin.”

Chandrasekaran recalls the presence of theatre artiste and writer Cho Ramaswamy at the ground every weekend till the end of the 1950s. “He would come and watch BRC’s matches at this ground. He had watched me so closely that when I was not selected for the state team, he wrote a strong piece on my non selection.”

It was also this ground that Indian Express’s Ramaswamy visited every weekend to plan and write his feature cricket story of the week.

Chandrasekaran has special praise for Ganesh Moorthy, the then physical director of the school“He was the man instrumental in the maintenance and development of the ground. He would take special interest in cricket and we had great nets facilities to practice at this ground in the 1950s.”

Ranji Cricketer R Prabhakar, who will be felicitated by the TNCA this week, was renowned for his six hitting. When students wanted a break from the classroom boredom, they would roar at R Prabhakar to hit one of his favourite towering sixes. And he would answer their wishes with a six that would send the ball through the roof of the class into the class room that led to rain water seeping into the class the next day. The students who got the desired break would join in a rapturous applause of Prabhakar  the next time he was at the ground in a thanking gesture to him.

Mylaporean for life the legendary leg spinner VV Kumar was a student of PS School through the 1940s. He had his cricketing foundation playing for the school in the competitive school tournaments“When I was at PS School, I had this habit of collecting different kinds of balls- Golf balls, Hockey balls, Polo balls, Tennis balls and Cork balls. One day, when in the 3rd Form, I threw a golf ball on the wall like an off spin and found that the ball came back with an opposite spin (leg spin). I was quite intrigued with that and felt that if the Golf ball could do this much, why not a cricket ball. And that was when I decided to take up leg spin.”

VV Kumar started playing cricket in 1948 at the age of 13 “In those days, school cricket was very strong and competitive. We competed fiercely with each other - Hindu School, RKM, Doveton Corie and PS Higher Secondary. That set the tone for my competitive spirit.”

Full day cricket matches continued at PS School ground into the first decade of this century. And then all of a sudden entry was denied into the cricket field for non school students and the TNCA matches have not been held at the ground for the last several years. Finally after almost a decade, the Mylapore MLA, Velu, who himself was an active tennis ball cricketer in his childhood and played many a match at this ground, is looking to revive the ground and restore it to its ancient glory.  Will the TNCA league matches be held in the new season at the ground? One will have to wait and watch. For the moment, the news is that the ground owes a lot of rental money to the Kapali temple and the authorities' first step seems to be to recover the dues. The Kapali temple EO told this writer earlier this week that they have had discussions recently with the school board.

The TNCA league season is expected to start in early September. It will be interesting to see if the TNCA officials are able to discuss with the Kapali temple authorities, the school board and particularly the Mylapore MLA regarding the possibility of securing the ground for this new league season. Its in the heart of the city and securing this ground for the new season will be a big boost to the TNCA. Just a few years ago,  the Gandhinagar Club ground was revived through the efforts of VS Sukumar (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/02/gandhi-nagar-sports-club-cricket-ground.html?m=1) and the TNCA league and school matches have become a regular feature there. With great maintenance and the lush green outfield, it also rates as one of the best grounds in the city for lower division matches.

This section will track the developments at the PS School ground.