Bharath Reddy celebrated his four decades with Jolly Rovers in style with a first division crown achieved with a match to spare
With a lot of the reputed players and those with aspirations to move up the cricketing ladder choosing to sign up with India Cements’ clubs in the first division, it was a big achievement for Bharath Reddy managed Jolly Rovers to win the Palayampatti Shield with a match to go in the new format that was introduced this season. Only recently, he had just been felicitated on completion of 40 years with Jolly Rovers and he capped off the four decades journey with yet another first division trophy.
So how did he manage to pull this off at a time when it has remained a challenge to rope in the cream of the TN players.
Just as a background, last year, Bharath had a twin blow first losing his boss of almost four decades N Sankar and then a semifinal defeat at the hands of Vijay CC in the first division. Prior to that, he had offered to let go off his cricketing engagement with the decreasing importance of first division cricket. But Sankar, just before his demise, took a promise from Bharath that he would continue this engagement as long as son Vijay wanted him to (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2022/05/vijay-sankar-jolly-rovers-takes-over.html).
And so he got on to the new season with renewed vigour with the aim of adding another trophy to his belt. He had told this writer at the start of the season that the new format would lead to home teams ‘preparing’ pitches to secure outright wins (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2022/11/tnca-first-division-league-2022-23.html).
The Players
While the longer term trend has been for players to move to India Cements’ clubs from Sanmar’s Jolly Rovers, Bharath Reddy managed to rope in three batsmen at the top of the order from India Cements. Kaushik Gandhi after spending years with India Cements has been captaining Jolly Rovers in recent times (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2022/08/kaushik-m-gandhi-tn-opener-tnpl-captain.html).
Bharath Reddy says that he was persistent for three years and secured the services of Aparjith and Indrajith and that has strengthened the batting order significantly. He himself is surprised as to how the twins accepted his invitation but their presence has been a big boost. “They have been centric to the team composition and I have built a team around those two. Of course, Kaushik Gandhi has captained the team well and contributed well with the bat.”
This section had featured a story in October last year on the transformational form of opener Sai Sudarshan and his breathtaking centuries and the partnership with his captain gave Jolly Rovers the batting boost early on in the season.
Off Spinner Jalaj Saxena had played for Kalpathies’ Young Stars. Bharath Reddy had watched him in action during the league matches here and was clear that he would make a difference in matches where crucial big wickets mattered “I could count on him to get us the key wickets against the top teams. His wickets has helped turn the course of matches.”
If he managed to have as good a top four in batting as one could have in the first division, with Jalaj he had a match winning bowler who would get you outright wins or the crucial first innings lead against stronger opposition.
A ‘Desire to Win’ attitude has been instilled in every player and there was no better indication of this when they turned up for that match against Vijay CC last month. “The Cricketing ‘Veri’ is a standout feature of every single Jolly Rovers’ player.”
The Pitches
He has been a master at preparing pitches and strategized ahead of time on the kind of pitches he would have for his home based on the opposition. “Depending on the opposition and their right /left batting combinations, I knew the kind of pitches that would work for our off spinner and left arm spinner.”
The Big Match of the Season
Ahead of the match against Vijay CC (India Cements) last month, Bharath Reddy was keen to go for the first innings lead but much to his surprise his captain and the top players in the team were raring to go (a bit more than usual) and they pitched with him for the outright win. “When the opposition players landed up at the ground that morning, you could see all the Ranji faces there. There was a sudden sense of aggression to do well against that team and they gave their heart out in that match. To post an innings victory against them gave me the greatest satisfaction.”
Sai’s double hundred and Jalaj’s six wicket helped set up the first ever outright victory against Vijay CC.
The men in the background - Coaches and Support Staff
While the players and pitches have played a role in the championship win, Bharath is quick to point out the biggest differentiator and the reason why the biggest of players want to turn up for Sanmar “We have unmatched cricket infrastructure for any league club in the city. We provide two new balls every day of the year (new balls are very expensive these days!!!). The players have round the year option to play on the center wicket (when there are no first division matches). Four of the five coaches led by Ajay Kudua have been with us for well over a decade without a break, once again unmatched elsewhere in the league. There is a continuity and the coaches understand our culture.”
The accountability model that has been in place for all the coaches and support staff is another differentiator. There is even an attendance register for them!!!
For someone like Vimal Khumar (who is now wanted by everyone after his triple hundred and his rich vein of form in the 2nd half!!!) about whom this writer had featured a story as early as 2019(https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2019/01/vimal-khumar-tn-cricketer.html), Bharath says he has provided an exclusive coach to work on his batting and his mental strength.
He also points to a least spoken aspect “The fitness trainer works magic. Shyam Sundar gets the injured players back on to their feet in no time and the players truly value his contribution.”
Bharath (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2019/11/bharath-reddy-players-man.html) has won 50 titles in his four decades with Sanmar. Only a couple of weeks back he was felicitated for his 40 years of cricketing association with Jolly Rovers. So what kept him going for another first division championship this season “For me, it’s the pride. After winning the first division title with a match to spare, I felt on top of the world. It’s like being in the 10th heaven.”
N Sankar (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/11/jolly-rovers-n-sankar-75.html) was very passionate about cricket in the five and a half decades he was associated with Jolly Rovers. Over the last one year, Bharath Reddy has found Vijay (Sankar) crazier about cricket at JR than even his appa. “The corporate business has grown manifold and he is on travel all through the year but his passion for cricket has not diminished one bit from the time I first saw him closely when he managed Kohinoor all those decades ago.”
Cricketing Legacy safe and intact
Vijay is at a Board meeting on a busy Monday morning and just a few hours ahead of an overseas trip but he makes time out of the Board to share his thoughts on why Jolly Rovers continues to be a destination for the cricketers in the country “We still have old school cricketing values. We focused a lot on setting up the core values even in terms of the top players turning up for practice and playing matches. We don’t want to give those (values) up. The discipline of players in how they approach their net sessions and the matches is a differentiator. The overall cricketing environment we provide and the skills improvement opportunities is a prime reason for them to partner with us in their cricket journey.”
The top two run getters in the first division league were both from Sanmar with Sai Sudarshan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2022/08/tn-selectors-chairman-vasudevan-sai.html) scoring just over 1000 runs for Jolly Rovers and Vimal Khumar with close to 1000runs for Alwarpet finishing the 2nd half of the season with a bang and becoming the cynosure of all eyes. Already, there have been multiple calls from other clubs wanting the services of Vimal but Bharath is confident that both Sai and Vimal (he will graduate to Jolly Rovers from Alwarpet) will stick with them and the core of the team will continue into the new season.
For Vijay Sankar, there is a legacy of keeping the cricketing reputation intact. Anchored by Bharath Reddy, the recent crowning with the Palayampatti shield for the 22nd time is testimony to the fact that the reputation built over several decades of Jolly Rovers being the team to beat in the first division remains undiminished.
It was the first full season for Bharath Reddy without N Sankar, whose photo continues to be his display message on his whatsapp. This 17th first division title under Bharath is one dedicated to his mentor and the man who meant everything to him from the time he joined Sanmar in the early 1980s. For someone with over 50 trophies and acknowledged by the cricket fraternity as one of the best people(player) managers, it is a surprise that the TNCA has not once in recent decades got into a conversational engagement with him to explore a role for him in TN cricket. It is hoped that the new President Ashok Sigamanii (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2022/11/ashok-sigamani-tnca-president.html?showComment=1668001163099&m=1) who is all for the development of TN cricket and open to conversations in the cricketing space, will reverse the trend and get talking to Bharath Reddy to see how his cricketing knowledge can be used for the betterment of TN cricket.
For the moment, it’s time for Bharath Reddy to celebrate yet another memorable season. His success story is likely to see no end in the near future.