NS Harish Jolly Rovers Palayampatti Shield

In the not too distant past, winning the Palayampatti Shield in the first division league in Chennai was considered the pinnacle for clubs in the city. It was highly competitive and an eagerly looked forward to competition at the start of every new season. While the shorter version tournaments have taken over in importance, world over, for those from the past, the first division league still holds its own in terms of its charm and glory. For one young 23 year old South Paw from Vayalur in Trichy, this week could turn out to be transformational for he led Jolly Rovers to a dramatic comeback win against Vijay CC to help his team lift the first division championship trophy yet another time.

NS Harish studied in a school in Vayalur that did not have a cricket team. His interest in tennis ball cricket, where he always opened the batting, led his classmate Varun, a Trichy districts cricketer to show him the way into the U14 trials in Trichy. He was immediately picked as an opening batsman. To further his cricketing interest, he moved to Srirangam Boys School that had a pretty good cricket team. In the year he joined, the school won 7 of the 8 tournaments.  When CSK juniors tourney was held across the state in 2014, Harish led his school to a victory in Trichy bagging the best allrounder award – he had started bowling left arm spin by then. 

When his school went to Tirunelveli for the inter districts tourney in the CSK Juniors, his performance helped beat the much fancied Tirunelveli and he bagged the player of the tournament award. When the school came to Chennai to take on the star teams from the city, his performance won him the man of the match award and helped his school finish third. Based on his performance, he was picked for the CSK Juniors camp.

His performance in the CSK Juniors competition led former Ranji fast bowler D Devanand to pick him for Social CC in the fourth division. It was a season when this writer umpired matches of Social CC, one when Harish scored over 200 runs as an opener (he played as an opening bat and did not bowl. The next year he moved into SICAL. It was there that he began to bowl left arm spin with the new ball. 

Former Kerala and South Zone cricketer B Ramprakash spotted him in a U23 districts match and signed him up for TI Cycles but that turned out to a very quiet season. By then he had joined BBA at the Hindustan College in Chennai. 

In his formative years, it was Veeraraghavan (Veeru) in Trichy who guided Harish into cricket and should take a lot of credit for leading him into serious cricket.

It was a year that India Cements run Egmore RC secured promotion to the second division in the TNCA league. J Gokulakrishnan, now a BCCI match referee was impressed with his performance in the U23 districts match and picked him for Egmore Club. It was one of the best seasons for him in the league for he played in all the games and picked up 21 wickets. From an opening bat, he had become a full time spinner who batted now batted at No. 10. 

Good performances in the second division for Egmore led him into Grand Slam in the first division where he was under the shadow of Sai Kishore who had already established himself as the lead left arm spinner. He played only three games that season but in his third he impressed everyone with a 8 wicket haul in the match (four in each innings). Grand Slam also won the Palayampatti shield that year. 

He had hoped to continue at Grand Slam after his eight wicket haul but the feedback was unsure. It was then that Hemant Kumar approached with an offer to play for MCC ( Jolly Rovers’ third team in the first division). Before he could take a call, that place too was filled up. There was just a day left for the transfer signing for the new season when he received a call from Jolly Rovers to sign up as a backup spinner “I knew I was not going to be a first team player and that my chances could be minimal but I was keen to focus on improve my bowling and batting skills in the nets. I wanted to use their infra facilities to up my skills.”

In 2018-19, he signed up for Jolly Rovers. He did not bowl at all in the first half of the season but at the back end Jesuraj was working on him at the nets and he began to feel a lot more confident about himself. He made his debut for Jolly Rovers against Alwarpet with a three wicket haul, also scoring 35. He followed this up with a five wicket haul (when his closest bowling mate DT Chandrasekar did not play). "DT has been a big influence for he has always inspired me to do better."

The performance for Jolly Rovers earned him a place in the VB Veerans team in the TNPL where he worked closely once again with J Gokulakrishnan (the bowling coach roped in by VB). The team reached the eliminator that season and he played 8games in the TNPL that year(https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2019/07/vb-gokulakrishnan-tnpl.html).  

By 19-20, he had begun to work closely with Bharath Reddy (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2019/11/bharath-reddy-players-man.html) and Ajay Kudua “They would call me quite regularly and enquire about my well being. It boosted my confidence a great deal.”

He had a couple of good knocks in the first division one day tournament with the bat but the season was rather quiet especially after the injury he had in the first half of the season. And then in March 2020 came the Lockdown that kept cricketers out of action for over a year. He looks about the period of the lockdown as a transformational phase for him “We had a disciplined online training session through the entire period of the lockdown.”

During that period, he had a wrist fracture following a fall at home. Immediately Barath Reddy asked the physio to take personal care of him “I did not spend a single rupee on my injury.  Physio Shyam helped me with the complete rehabilitation and I was ready for action when the lockdown was lifted.”

In the TNPL he moved to Nellai from Thiruvallur and his performance this year was steady with his economy rate at 6.

Between the first and second wave, he was back at practice at the nets at Jolly Rovers. He did reasonably well in the TNPL with an economy of around 6. Following the TNPL, it was time to complete the first division league relating to 2019-20. He once again acknowledges the role played by Barath Reddy “He came and saw the pitch ahead of the semi final and suggested that they play me in the XI. Though I did not get an opportunity to bowl or bat, it was a great confidence booster for me to be just in the XI of such a strong team.”

And though he had not made any contribution in the semi final, much to his surprise, he was included in the XI in the final on Sunday morning. Once again he did not get a chance to bowl as Jolly Rovers bowled out Vijay CC for just 245. But by end of day one they were tottering at 37/3 “Though our main batsmen were dismissed, the team was not down in spirit. The message was clear that we batted deep and that this will help us win.”

But just before lunch, Jolly Rovers had collapsed to 145 for 7. The opener, in his teenage years, came into bat now at No. 9 with just a few overs to go to lunch “I had known Apar very closely for the last two years including during my stint at VB Veerans in the TNPL. He had confidence in me. Barath Reddy too was there and I wanted to repose the confidence he had in me for he was the one who backed me for the Semi Final.”

By the time Aparjith got out with still around 50 required to win, Harish had got into his zone and he took on the role of the senior partner when Kiran Akash joined him.

Harish had begun his career as an opening batsman and he always he had it in him as a batsman “During the tea break, Ankit Bhawne came to me and said that this was a life time opportunity for me to showcase my skills with the bat.”

In fact when there was a call from Grand Slam a few years ago to play in the first division and he had to be away for 3months from Trichy, his parents refused permission for even he did not know the importance of first division league as a young teenager. Later it was R Satish who had been continuously monitoring his progress and giving feedback to the team management on how to use his skills best.

But now, under the highest pressure he had encountered todate on a cricket field, he took Jolly Rovers to a rather unexpected and a dramatic comeback win.  The outcome in the Palayampatti shield was a result of the efforts taken by the team management in the previous 12 months, says Harish. Jayakumar too has played a big role in his life staying in the background and working on his skills quietly at the nets.

During the lockdown, his appa’s real estate business had been down. “Chemplast paid us in full through the entire period of the lockdown. It was with my salary that the family ran the household in Trichy for over 12 months for there was not much happening on the real estate front. It was a great gesture from the owner to take the decision to pay all the cricketers during the lockdown even though there was no cricket for over 12 months. Barath Reddy would say that the nets is available for me to use anytime to hone my skills."

Gokulakrishnan who was instrumental in getting him into the first division is philosophical looking back at the season that just ended in defeat for Vijay CC "He I a good player but its pinching that his best knock came against us. He took the game away from us with a  good disciplined knock. He has always been a talented cricketer."

As a youngster, he says, he came to Jolly Rovers with a lot of fear. It was a big team with a number of top players. Opportunities would be limited and Barath Reddy was known to be a strict disciplinarian. But his signing up for Jolly Rovers has turned out to be the greatest blessing of his life, says Harish “There is total clarity here. The communication from Barath Reddy and Ajay Kudua is very clear. They are open about everything including when I am dropped for matches. But the most important aspect that has been in vogue here is that there is no room for egos. I have simply not felt the difference between a junior and senior player. Everyone backs you when you are in the XI.”

Soon after the win on Monday, Bharath Reddy called it a great gift from the team to N Sankar who celebrated his 75th birthday last November (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/11/jolly-rovers-n-sankar-75.html). "It is Sankar's gesture to take care of the players, financially, during the lockdown when for an entire year there were no matches that served as a great morale booster to the entire team."

For Harish, this is a life transforming moment. He went in with his team tottering and with the opposition on a high. But he held his nerves and showed that he is a man for the Big Moment with a cool knock that endorsed the team management's faith in him. He has just played the innings of his life but Harish has his feet firmly on the ground. For the moment the man from Vayalur, known more for the famous Murugan temple, is doing what he likes in life – that is playing cricket and for a team that he likes and that has been taking care of him as if he belongs to their own family.  

This section will track his progress in the new season..