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Vijay Nirmal Kumar Cricketer Don Bosco

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Former Cricketer rises to the top of the Corporate Ladder 
The once ‘Rebellious' teenager  now manages the wealth of the Who’s Who in the Corporate World
N Vijay Nirmal Kumar (Pappu to his cricketing friends) had the makings of a solid opener in the second half of the 1980s and early 90s. He had a strong foundation at Don Bosco and at age group level in city and state schools coached by Chandrasekar Rao, Audi Chetty and Umapathy. He was a talented off spinner as well.  Cricketing glory beckoned. He shared the room with Rahul Dravid for South Zone at the U15 level. But parental pressure got the better of him and he simply could not unshackle himself from his appa’s perpetual outbursts and quit serious cricket in his late teens turning a rebel. But the cricketing lessons did not go waste and he used it in his corporate life. Touching 50, he now manages the wealth of the who’s who in the corporate world while also turning spiritual and seeking ‘Enlightenment’ and ‘Saraganathi’ in his way of life. Here is the story.

A Don Bosco Product
Vijay Nirmal Kumar did his entire schooling at Don Bosco. His appa Nandakumar hailed from Coimbatore and was a cricket fanatic. Unfortunately his cricketing interests were crushed by his appa. For a large part, Nandakumar had to play matches without his appa’s knowledge and even had to hide the paper scores.  Nandakumar had started Prasad CC in Coimbatore and another one by the same name in Chennai later. His appa would bowl to him at the BS Nets and shape his early batting style. What he could not achieve as a player he was keen for his son to. In this endeavour, he entered the cricketing life of his son right at the beginning when Vijay Nirmal Kumar was just 11. He would take his son to the BS Nets and bowl to him after the seniors had finished through the nets session. Nandakumar decided everything in his son’s cricketing life - starting with how much back lift should there be. 
When Vijay Nirmal Kumar came to play a practice match in the late 1980s for DB against YMCA TSR for whom this writer played, his appa’a voice was heard every ball that he faced. As a young teenager his ability to express himself was completely taken away from him. It symbolized his entire cricketing phase.

Emotional Challenges of a teenager
Of course, he was a beneficiary of some special privileges early on though he did not ask for it. His appa’s powerful presence in the TNCA led to him being given extra batting in the nets at the selection trials, something that eminent cricket writer of the time Rajan Bala pointed out in the Indian Express. As a teenager he was blissfully unaware of what was happening around him except that he was under the total control of his appa. It was a phase when he was fully into cricket getting through the school exams based only on the last month of preparations each year.
Don Bosco U15 -  Vijay Nirmal/ Tanvir Jabbar ( extreme L/R)

Vijay Nirmal Kumar looks back at those early days in cricket “My appa wanted to live his cricketing dream though me. His intention was noble but he did not know as to how it affected me, emotionally.”

Clearly engineering was not his subject  of choice but he had to join COE, Guindy on sports quota when he may have preferred to have played cricket for Viveka or Loyola (though not New College!!!). He was caught between his appa on one side and the college PD who was not particularly inclined towards cricketers in that phase. He was not given on duty attendance for missing classes for cricketing reasons including first division practice. 

“He was after perfection and would not be satisfied even after I scored a century. The fun element was taken away from me.  Till I became an adult the fear of failure was high. After a century, I was made to feel that I missed a double century and after a five wicket haul, I was made to feel that I missed a 7 wicket haul.”
 
There were severe emotional challenges he went through in that early phase with his appa watching every ball from the sidelines. “I could not hit any ball in the air. His drilling made me focus on not getting out under any circumstance. Mind did not function optimally during my cricketing days. When I once got run out for 99, I was pulled up for missing the century.”

To be under the scrutiny of his appa every ball he faced and every ball he bowled drained him emotionally that he lost the joy of playing. Instead of enjoying the sport, he became emotionally drained. He looked around him and found cricketers enjoying their game. Added to this was the tag of being a TNCA official’s son which always made his inclusion a questionable selection. There were always murmurs around in the cricketing circles. 

The Only Emotional Support – Tanveer Jabbar
TN cricketer from the 1990s Tanveer Jabbar played along with Vijay Nirmal Kumar through the late 80s for Don Bosco and for city and state schools. For a few years, they spent morning and evening together at the cricket nets and knew each other well. While Vijay Nirmal Kumar was a slow starter and a steady player, Tanveer was flamboyant. The two forged several big partnerships during the period and helped win matches for the school. He was one cricketer who stood by him in that difficult emotional phase in cricket. He told this writer that Vijay Nirmal Kumar was a very dedicated and disciplined cricketer“He was always willing to learn but unfortunately he could not do what he wanted to do. His father adopted an autocratic style and the conversations were always one sided."
“He could not get out of his father’s clutches throughout his schooling days. From gripping the bat to the back lift, from the stance to the foot movement, his father decided everything and was right in his ears every minute of his cricketing life at school.”

We had a good understanding of each other. I knew exactly as to what he was going through and tried my best to show compassion and empathy towards his feelings. He let out all his frustrations in our long conversations."

Turns a rebel at 18
In another story seen in this section earlier, Mayura Kumar (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/11/sanmar-mayura-kumar-swimming-tennis.html) too was initially pushed into tennis by her appa and uncle (late N Sankar) but she quickly got away from living their tennis dream and went on to become a national champion in swimming. But Vijay Nirmal Kumar failed to take such a quick call. Into college, he turned a rebel - his physical appearance being testimony to his new way of life. From a short summer hair cut earlier he turned a hippy growing his hair long. He joined a rock music band moving away mentally from cricket. He began to express himself outside of cricket in a way he had never done previously. He stopped engaging in cricketing conversations with his appa.
“At 18, I turned a rebel. I decided to take the opposite direction to what he took. I made new friends outside of cricket. It was a phase where nobody asked me any questions. I had also become a devotee of Ramana Maharishi and the spiritual experience continues to this day.”

Strong performance on the field
Between all of these, he had turned in some very good performances first for his school and also for the city and state in age group cricket. In 1986 he bowled in the nets to Gavaskar during the tied test and got him out “years later he still remembered me taking his wicket in the nets” recalls Vijay Nirmal Kumar.

Srikkanth – The Best Captain
He also moved up to playing first division cricket for Railway Institute and Alwarpet. Playing under K Srikkanth was fun “He was the best captain I had played under. He mixed humour with serious cricket. He was highly motivational and got the best out of the team.

There were also lows in cricket. Former TN and Goa allrounder J Gokulakrishnan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2017/03/gokulakrishnan-j.html), currently a BCCI match referee told this writer a few years ago as to how Vijay Nirmal dreaded the inswinger "There was a phase that he got out continuously to my inswingers and just did not like facing me."

Vijay Nirmal rose to the level of being in the list of Ranji probable in the 1990s but he moved away from cricket into the corporate life. His cricketing phase in the late 1980s was such a nightmare that he has erased it completely from his memory and does not remember most of the big knocks for his school or the state. In recent times, he has returned to cricket and is a member of the apex council of the TNCA. Later, he came back to play lower division cricket once in a while as well as the popular inter club cricket where for The Presidency Club he expressed himself like never before. Playing with a new found freedom, he unleashed himself with audacious stroke play at the start of the innings. 

Big Success in the Corporate World
Soon after becoming an engineer, he joined a manufacturing plant but he soon found out that he was not cut out for production. He pursued his MBA from Symbiosis and moved into the banking sector. He had not been able to fulfill his cricketing potential but in the corporate world he has made right to the top, literally sitting on the 7th floor of the bank!!! Over the last two decades, he has enjoyed enormous success in the corporate world working in large firms such as Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC, Merrill Lynch and Barclays. Into the late 40s, he has become one of the most successful wealth managers. Currently he is the Regional Head of the Wealth Management division at one of India's leading private sector bank. For all the emotional challenges in his cricketing phase, he has found the will to put those behind him to make it to the top of the corporate ladder. He now manages the wealth of the ‘Who’s Who’ in corporate circles. He has bagged the top performer award multiple times at the bank but he brushes away the corporate success in his current philosophical way of life “it all happened on its own and in the way it had to.” 

However, he does credit a lot of his corporate success to the cricketing lessons “The cricketing experience has given me a lot of mental balance and helped in emotional management in the corporate world. It taught me resilience. Cricket was a hard grind and we had to dig deep against the great bowlers of the time. It developed my character and has helped with discipline and work ethic. Cricket has been the greatest teacher. It taught me that I could get out every ball, I could score a zero after a century and I carried that lesson into the corporate life. It helped me manage success and failure and provided the much needed emotional control. It has contributed to the DNA of how you function.” 


Cricketer turned Enterpreneur Promodh Sharma played cricket alongside Vijay Nirmal Kumar in the 1980s and has known him closely for over three decades. He has also placed his investment faith in him for several years "As an investment Banker Vijay is second to none . He puts great value on integrity and always keeps the clients best interest at heart whenever he advises you on any matter. He does his homework and ensures that he understands your risk appetite and then acts in accordance. Of course goes without saying he is very intuitive and understands the odds he is dealing with on the market very very well.He has consistently delivered on my family’s portfolio over the years."

Martial Arts and Tapas
What a transformation it has been for a cricketer who was once under the clutches of his appa. From the emotional lows during his early cricketing phase to great corporate success, from black and brown belt in Martial Arts to everyday Tapas, Vijay Nirmal has experienced it all. His emotional balance and the sense of calm that one sees in him these days is something one could not have fathomed after what he went through in his teenage life. There is a blessed feeling about him when one finds him immersed in meditation at the Arunachaleswarar Sannidhi at the Kapaleeswarar Temple where he is a regular these days. He has found his purpose in life having been on a self-discovery path and is working towards attaining ‘Enlightenment’ following the Saranagathi way of life. 

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