Gokulakrishnan DJ passes away at 50

TN fast bowler from the 1990s J Gokulakrishnan passed away aged 50 on Wednesday evening on his way to the hospital after feeling ‘uncomfortable’ at the Gym. He was to leave on Friday to officiate as a Match Referee in the Syed Mushtaq Ali National T20 tournament. His brother and TN Ranji teammate from the 1990s J Madanagopal, now an international umpire, too was to leave Friday to officiate as an umpire in the same tournament. 

There was an even more interesting prospect awaiting Gokulakrishnan and only 24 hours earlier he had discussed at length with his brother “He had been asked this week if he would be interested to take up a coaching role in the US. He was visibly excited about this prospect and discussed the pros and cons of this. His sons were in Class XI and I was likely to travel a lot for my Umpiring. He was anxious as to who would take care of their parents”, Madanagopal told this writer on Thursday morning. It was one of the last things they had discussed (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/10/madanagopal-j.html).

If all had been well, he would have taken a call on this pretty quickly and may have left his Indian cricketing friends for a while if he chose to take up the offer but unfortunately just a day later he has left behind the several thousands of cricketing friends, permanently never to return again. 

He was a GEM to almost all the cricketers. He never refused anything when asked and would always try his best to help out others. He also never forgot his early years in cricket and the cricketers he played with in his teenage days. 

In July this year, when cricketer turned millionaire entrepreneur Promodh Sharma(https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/05/promodh-sharma-cricketer-turned.html), now in Hongkong, came to Madras, he was keen to meet with Gokul. When this writer asked him if he would be available, his answer was unsurprising “Just let me know the venue and time and I will be there.” 

Promodh chose a venue 100 yards from Gokul’s house in Gandhi Nagar for the Saturday luncheon. In that long almost three hour meeting, two incidents from Gokulakrishnan’s career took center stage. The first was about the chucking call in his very first Ranji match. Promodh had faced Gokulakrishnan many times in the late 1980s at the YMCA TSR nets and he had also kept wickets to him during the All India tournament in Bangalore conducted by Brijesh Patel and Imtiaz Ahmed. And he was certain that Gokul was far from chucking. He also rated Gokul as the fastest bowler he had kept to in that phase in the late 1980s and early 90s.

The other person in this meeting was former Junior State cricketer Vijay Nirmal (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2022/09/vijay-nirmal-cricketer-don-bosco.html). He had been Gokulakrishnan’s bunny in the city v districts matches falling prey to Gokul’s big inswingers. Vijay was particularly curious about the mental impact of the no ball call. As always, Gokul was candid in that meeting about the impact “I had had a couple of great seasons in league cricket in Chennai and the confidence was sky high. Expectations were also high but this call shattered my completely. I was just 20 at that time. Though I was cleared by Dennis Lillee, it took quite some time for the scar to go away”, he told the three of us at that meeting.

Just when he was making his comeback, the comments by his mentor VB Chandrasekar left him shell shocked “VB had been made the TN Captain that season. Soon after, he came up to and told me ‘Just because I am the captain, do not expect to be the TN team.’  The comment shook me a 2nd time and this unwarranted comment too quite some time to heal.”

Both these incidents shook him quite a bit but he was always resilient and came back strong that decade. He was on the verge of being picked for India A when he was playing for Goa but an on-field injury dashed his hopes of an India A debut.

Earlier this year, when this writer asked if he could help out the Netherland league cricketer with bowling skills, his answer was the same “let know the time and the number of sessions and I will do it for you”.

The few sessions that Vidhvath Viswanathan had with Gokul led him to top the wicket taking chart in the league there this season, such had been the positive impact of those sessions (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2023/09/vidhvath-viswanathan-netherlands-best.html).

Vijay Nirmal told this writer on Wednesday night that Gokul immediately accepted his invitation to come to Prasad's league nets (Vijay owns Prasad CC - a 5th division league club) and had a look at the players. It did not matter if it was an ameteur cricketer in Netherlands playing for fun or fifth division league cricketers looking to further their cricket career. He always responded positively when old cricketing friends invited him. 

This writer had a long three hour chat with him earlier this year at the India Pistons ground during the end of season first division league match. In that meeting, he expressed anxiety at the choice of IIT coaching academy  for his twins sons and the big cost differential between different academies. He said that it was all quite confusing. He sought the thoughts of  left arm spinner Aushik Srinivas in that meeting (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2012/07/aushik-srinivas.html).

He always wanted to be picked and given opportunities on merit and lived his entire life that way expecting no favours from anyone. Even when he was down in different phases in life including after his playing days, he refused to reach out to the powers that be to enquire about his future. He gave his best always and left the rest to ‘God’. Both on cricketing topics with this writer and on varied topics with his family members he did not mince words. His amma told this writer on Thursday morning that while Madan was the quiet, non controversial guy at home, Gokul would always discuss issues with her and express his views openly ‘even if I did not like to hear it’. He always spoke straight and did not leave anything to doubt. "That gave me a great comfort feeling. He would always call me to tell me  and seeking my blessings when he left on tours. But on Wednesday he went away forever without informing me."

He did not like to trouble others be it his relatives or his cricketing friends, in terms of seeking help out of the way. Interestingly, even on Wednesday evening when he felt uncomfortable during the Gym session, he did not reach out to Madan who was just a km away at his house and took an auto to the hospital leaving his two wheeler at the Gym. 

But he was never to return to pick his two wheeler.

Below is a  story this writer wrote on Gokul in 2017: