His biggest cricketing moment came in Jan'76 when he lifted the prestigious Rohinton Baria Trophy at the Wankhade after beating a strong Bombay team
Its forty years since SM Krishna Kumar left the Madras shores but his memories of lifting the prestigious Rohinton Baria Trophy after defeating a star-studded Bombay team in 1976 remain fresh. It had been the best moment in his cricketing life. He had been a captain right from his school days and this victory in Bombay was the icing on the cake for this soft-spoken cricketer. A month later, he scored a century in a practice game for TN against Ceylon a couple of days ahead of the Gopalan Trophy match but the TN selectors had already named the XI as was the model then and he was informed, much to his shock and disappointment, by his captain Michael Dalvi that he was not in the XI. Within months of the University triumph, he was roped in by the then TN opener V Krishnaswamy to IOB in the first division. A year later, he was to be in the TN squad for the Ranji match but unfortunately he twisted his ankle, not for the first time in his career and was ruled out of cricket for a few months. He took to umpiring in 1978 seeking to emulate his appa who had officiated in a test match in 1961 and made his Ranji debut (in umpiring) in the early 1980s. However, an extraordinary performance in the all-India officer promotion examination led him to IOB Hongkong and his mind shifted to a career in ‘Currency’. Here’s the story.
Krishnakumar (SM to his cricketing friends) began playing cricket as a five year old in the corridor of his home in Purasawalkam. There was so little space on one side that he could not play his strokes freely as a right hander and hence became a left- handed bat. The open space on the leg side for this left hander meant he developed on side strokes a lot better in those early days. His advocate appa, SV Kumaraswamy, who played a bit of cricket alongside the legendary Pattabhiraman and Sriraman, took to umpiring early in his life and officiated in the Delhi test in December 1961, the one that saw Tiger Pataudi make his debut against Ted Dexter’s England.
SM is on a trip to his home town after five long years and is busy catching up with old mates soon after he landed in Chennai this week.
Amidst his packed schedule, he made time to meet the writer to recount his cricketing years“My sister was studious and academically brilliant and here I was spending almost my entire time on cricket during my school and college years but much to my delight my parents gave me all the freedom to do what I enjoyed. Cricketing legends of the time visited home at frequent intervals and hence the discussions in that early phase in my life was always around cricket. When I was just five, my appa took me to the Corporation stadium to watch the Ranji players practice and that experience created a great bit of interest in cricket. My goal had been set right then - I wanted to play for TN”, he told this writer as to how the TN Ranji players of the time proved to his early inspiration in cricket.
A Big early lesson in his cricketing life
His earliest taste of captaincy was rather bitter as a strong Senior side at MCC School lost to an un-fancied St. Georges School led by Burrows “It was a huge upset and our loss sent shock waves across the cricketing fraternity. I was quite disappointed that day but it also taught me a big lesson that has been with me for the rest of my life – Never underestimate your opponent however weak you think they are.”
A long association with MRC A
In 1968, he joined MRC A in the third division of the TNCA league “I had heard a lot about the history of MRC. PR Sundaram was in the process of rebuilding the team and he encouraged youngsters. I was just 13 years old but the club presented me with a number of opportunities and that early exposure to league cricket gave me a lot of confidence.”
A left hander's delight - SM caressing the ball through the covers!!!
TT Srinivasaraghavan (TT Ramesh during his school days), who retired in 2021 from Sundaram Finance after having served as its MD for over 15years, played alongside Krishnakumar for a few years at school and then against him at the college level (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2021/08/tt-srinivasaraghavan-tts-sundaram.html). He has fond memories of Krishnakumar from that period in the late 1960s and early 70s “SM, as we called him, was one of the most stylish left handers of our time. He was gifted with the natural left hander's grace and was a sweet timer of the ball. We were teammates, and played a lot together, since we were in the same class until 9th standard, and were the team to beat, in the inter section matches! We were also teammates in the school team. He moved to the engineering section in Class 10, after which we became rivals! We later played against each other in college as well, he representing Pachaiyappas college and I Vivekananda!”
“As I recall, he curbed his natural stroke making abilities in the latter part of his career and became more of a defensive batsman. We were also in the NCC, Naval wing together, through our school years. It's well over 50 years since we left school but the memories of SM caressing the ball through the covers are still vivid!”
Former Ranji middle order batsman and a team mate of Krishnakumar right from the MCC school days, PS Moses(https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2023/06/ps-moses-tn-ranji-batsman-1970s-80s.html) who is now deep into 'Faith' says SM was one of the best human beings he has come across "He was very humble, honest, refined, very kind hearted, knowledgeable and very friendly. As a batsman, he was very gritty and it was never easy to get him out. He valued his wicket and would grind the opposition."
Cricketing Idol
Even as his cricket was beginning to take shape in the early 1970s, two outstanding performances had a great bearing on Krishnakumar as a batsman and a captain “India’s victories in the West Indies and England under Ajit Wadekar left a lasting impression in me. Though the 1983 World Cup is cited as a turning point in India’s cricket history, the performances in the WI and England in the early 70s put us on the world map in cricket. Wadekar helped bring the team together and brought the best out of the players. He was my cricketing idol from my teenage years in cricket. Of course, as a left hander, I was also greatly inspired by Sobers’ twin knocks in Chennai in January 1967.”
He had remained a middle order bat during the school days. It was when V Sivaramakrishnan moved out of MRC A that he was elevated to open the batting for the club in the first division. He recalls with great cheer saving the first match of the new season against VV Kumar and Co“We came up against a strong SBI team at the start of the season and I was opening for the first time at this level. They had scored 195 by lunch and were confident of bowling us out in the 2nd half. I batted for 3 ½ hours against VV, Chandru and Prabhakar to save the match for MRC ‘A’ It was one of my first big moments in cricket.”
Played some unique shots
Owner of The Hindu and middle order Ranji batsman from the 1970s K Balaji (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/09/a-blossoming-cricket-career-was-cut.html) first went on a long tour with Krishnakumar with the City Schools team to Lovedale. He had seen Krishnakumar from close quarter through the 1970s and remembers him as being ahead of his time in terms of shot making“We see scoops being played now but SMK played some unique shots even way back then. He would even confidently sweep the fast bowlers.”
The Glorious Triumph
Krishnakumar reached the pinnacle in his cricket career in early 1976. He recalls as to how they stayed as one unit leading up to the Rohinton Baria tournament“Under my captaincy the previous year, the city colleges took the first innings lead against MCC in the semi-final of the Buchi Babu tourney but lost outright. Though we lost, it gave us a lot of confidence that we could take on a strong MCC team and give them a serious challenge. It was almost the same team that played in 75-76 in the inter university tournament. We had already built a good rapport and were playing well as a unit.”
After winning the trophy earlier in the decade, the Madras University had missed out on success for a couple of years. And in 75-76, they recaptured the lost glory under SM. He enjoyed Pongal in 1976 with a terrific 81 in the semifinal against a Punjab side comprising the likes of Malhotra, Yashpal and Yograj Singh. It was his first innings effort that set up Madras’ victory.
A fortnight later, he proudly held aloft the Trophy. Krishnakumar credits the great unity among the team members for the victory “Bombay was a star studded line up that included Sandeep Patil, Rahul Mankad, Suru Nayak and Zarapkar. We were clearly the underdogs and nobody gave us a chance but within the team we were quietly confident. I was blessed with a terrific set of players each of whom made vital contributions when the team most needed. To post a comeback win like we did in the final after conceding the first innings lead gave each of us a great deal of confidence.”
He counts the victory under Sushil’s captaincy in 1973 as a thrilling one while the one in 1976 gave him a lot of satisfaction. “I had dreamed for an entire year of lifting that trophy and when it happened in Bombay, it was a magical moment for me.”
The Decisive break eludes him
A month after this momentous victory, Krishnakumar was picked in the TN team for the Gopalan Trophy tournament in Sri Lanka. Ranji Trophy winning captain S Vasudevan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/06/vasudevan-tn-ranji-trophy-retirement.html) is now the spin coach at the TNCA Academy. He was an integral part of the team that won the Rohinton Baria Tournament under Krishnakumar’s captaincy and made a telling contribution with the ball both in the semi-final and the final picking up 13 wickets. He recalls the century in Colombo ahead of the Gopalan Trophy match “SM was in prime form. He had led the Madras University to a glorious triumph in Bombay just a month earlier and was looking forward to the move to the next level in cricket. He scored a superb century against Ceylon in the practice game and could have been picked for the TN team for the Gopalan Trophy but unfortunately the Selectors had already named the XI and this century did not count for anything. An opportunity in that match could have been a decisive break for him especially as his confidence was high at that time but it was not to be.”
Krishnakumar himself recounts the disappointment at not getting that crucial break when he was in good form. "My confidence was sky high. I was all excited and raring to go. I had worked hard for close to a decade with the ambition of playing for TN and believed that the moment had arrived. When I did not get to bat at the nets on the eve of the big game I thought that they had seen enough of me after the century and that I was a certainty in the XI. When captain Michael Dalvi called me aside and told me that the Selectors had already chosen the XI and that I would not playing the match, I realised that the century had kind of turned inconsequential. It was one of the low points of my cricket career. I had been scoring decent runs and believed that I was on the cusp of achieving what I had been my cricketing dream since the time I saw the TN cricketers at the nets as a 5year old boy. For a while, I was completely dejected and disappointed and it took sometime for me to overcome the shock of being dropped.”
He also scored a half century against the Sri Lanka U25 team, one comprising of future international players.
Always a high price on his wicket
S (Just) Srinivasan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2022/08/s-srinivasan-tn-bombay-ranji-svpb-spic.html) was involved in a big century partnership with Peter Fernandez in the Semifinals of the inter University tournament in January 1976. He played under Krishnakumar both for Madras University as well the Junior State team. In 2018, when Srinivasan went to Australia, he remembers Krishnakumar hosting a great lunch at his home in Sydney “SM was an astute Captain. I had always admired him as an opening batsman who played with a lot of guts & determination and wondered as to how he managed to play so capably sporting the spectacles. He understood his limitations and played well within himself. He always laid a high price on his wicket. We had all hoped and wished that he would be rewarded with the State Cap after emerging as a Victorious Captain of the Madras University against the star studded Bombay University team & having scored useful runs in the tournament but it was not to be.”
Takes up Kicha's offer at IOB
Within months of the Rohinton Baria triumph and even before he graduated, TN opener V Krishnaswamy (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/08/krishnaswamy-v.html) offered him a job at IOB. He says legendary S Venkataraghavan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2020/04/venkataraghavan75.html) too offered him a job at SPIC and an opportunity to play for YMA but he had to reject that as he had already accepted the offer from Kicha.
The man who hired him was a strict disciplinarian and SM got a taste of that in a league match soon after “Family events combined with my evening classes at Law meant I had to miss the practice at IOB ahead of a league match. Soon after the toss, I padded up ready to open only to be told by H Sundaram (who was like an elder brother to me) that Kicha had imposed a one match punishment on me for missing the practice the previous day. I had become a regular in the team by then but it did not matter to Kicha for whom team discipline was important. It was yet another great early learning in my life on aspects of successful team building” says Krishnakumar.
Has always been a great host
IOB opener M Sundar played together for the city and state schools and joined IOB the same year as Krishnakumar “We had a great 7-8 years at IOB. He was very knowledgeable and could talk on a whole range of subjects. Even way back then, he was very philosophical. We would often meet for the victory celebrations at the terrace of his house at Fort St. George overlooking the Bay of Bengal and have long hours of cricket chats. After the University triumph, he was ambitious and quite serious about his cricket but later turned his attention to focus on a Banking career where he has done extremely well. He was a brilliant guy and stood first in the all-India examination when both of us were promoted to the officer grade.”
"He never forgot those early years at IOB and always tracked the performance of the players at the Bank. While meeting at his house had been a regular feature in Madras, he surprised all of us by hosting the IOB team members in Hongkong after he moved there in the mid 1980s."
A top human being
Former state opener NP Madhavan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2016/05/np-madhavan.html?m=1), who too was picked by Kicha for IOB in the late 1970s, has great words of praise for Krishnakumar as a human being “He was very calm in nature and moved well with every one. He was very knowledgeable and committed in work and that reflected in the strong career growth he has had."
Most loyal to IOB
Former Test cricketer and architect of the MRF Pace Foundation TA Sekar (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2013/08/ta-sekar-fastest-indian-bowler-of-1980s.html) was one of the fastest bowlers in the Indian domestic circuit in the early 1980s. He played together with Krishnakumar for many years in the 1970s including at Pachaiappas College and was part of the Madras University team that won the Rohinton Baria though he did not feature in the knock out matches. He particularly commends his ability to stand up strong on the unfriendly batting pitches in Chennai “To open on the dangerous matting wickets in those years needed great determination and grit. SM had both of these in abundant quantity. He could not be dislodged easily and placed a high price on his wicket.”
Sekar found SM extremely loyal to IOB and incurred his wrath when he decided to move to Jolly Rovers in the early 1980s “He was a very friendly person and for most part was a non- controversial type. But when he heard that I was moving from IOB to Chemplast, he was very upset. He was so loyal to IOB that he could not put up with anyone quitting the bank and moving to another team.”
Fought for the Bank's cause
Another Pachaiappas and IOB teammate M Santosh Kumar (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2022/06/m-santosh-kumar-iob-tn-ica.html) made his debut for Junior state under Krishnakumar’s captaincy. He counts SM as one of the best human beings he has met on the cricket field and says that everyone in the team liked him. He recounts an incident in those early years that showed his great loyalty to IOB “A match for IOB coincided with the Ranji nets. SM was clear that all of us had to play the match for the bank and let know his views to the powers that be at the TNCA. Not only did he convince them that it would be good match practice for the players, he also fought for IOB’s cause. The bank had provided us with jobs and he wanted each of us to be grateful for that and show our commitment by playing for the bank unless there were other compelling reasons. Most others would have succumbed to the pressure from TNCA but not SM. He spoke his mind on most occasions.”
In a Buchi Babu match where Santosh took 12 wickets, IOB were left to chase well over 300 against the TNCA XI “TA Sekar was at his fastest that day on a bouncy wicket at Union. There were no safety guards in those days but SM fought it out and gave his life for the Bank that day. He never gave up till the very end. It was his knock of 80+ that helped IOB win the match.”
He was a very shrewd captain too ‘He was also tactically brilliant as a captain. Dayakar and I were the main spinners at that time for IOB. Much to our disgust, he would take us off when we were bowling well and bring in NP Madhavan or Vasan and one of the them would immediately get us a crucial breakthrough. He knew how to get the best out of each player and always played for the team's winning cause.”
Gives up the Ranji playing dream but debuts in Umpiring
Runs for IOB brought him back into contention for the Ranji team under P. Mukund’s captaincy but once again his knee gave in. That was the last nail in the coffin and the weakness in the knee meant that his Ranji dream as a player would remain unfulfilled. But he chose another route to make his Ranji debut. Even as a young boy, he had learned the laws of cricket from his appa and had taken great early interest in understanding the nuances. In 1978, he cleared the umpiring examination and began to officiate in lower division matches while still playing for IOB in the first division.
Into the early 1980s, he passed the Board examination and made his debut as a Ranji umpire in 1982 something that gave him great satisfaction “I could not make it as a player but to officiate as an umpire in a Ranji match before I had turned 30 was very satisfying. At that time, I was very serious about umpiring and believed I had it in me to become a test umpire."
But he surprised himself with his outstanding performance in the promotion examination at IOB and things changed quite dramatically for him in his life “The bank had a ‘special motivational offer’ for those who came first in the all India examination. When I stood first in the officer promotion exam, I was posted on an overseas engagement. It was an exciting opportunity at 29.”
Another life lesson - Appa's sudden death and his last conversation with him
However, everything was not rosy that year and 1984 turned out to be a mixed bag for Krishnakumar “I was following in my appa’s footsteps as an umpire and had taken to it seriously. Within two months of my marriage, my appa passed away all of a sudden and then came this overseas posting. There was no plan to leave the country and all my focus had been on cricket over the previous 15years. My life changed quite unexpectedly. In a way it turned out that I was gone from Madras for ever with that overseas assignment for I have never come back to work in India in the last 40 years.”
He remembers his last conversation with his appa as having imparted another important lesson in life “That morning I had dropped my appa at the court. He wanted to share something with me after he got down but I was in a hurry to reach the bank and told him that I would talk to him in the evening. By then, he had gone into a coma and I was to never talk to him again. Do not postpone a conversation with your near and dear ones was a lesson I learned that day.”
“I missed my appa a lot in later years for he would have been happy with my corporate and cricket success overseas.”
To Hongkong in 1984
He landed in Hongkong in 1984 after leaving behind his cricket kit and his umpiring attire back in Madras with a mind that was set to focus on currency trading“It was then a very volatile market and I was handling US and Europe. That initial phase took a lot out of me as I had to work in multiple time zones. I had put my cricketing thoughts behind me and was mentally tuning in to focus on some challenging work at the Bank.”
But he was in for a pleasant surprise. When he was passing by one morning, he stood at a ground to watch a cricket match for a few minutes. Soon he got into a conversation with the cricketers and in no time registered for a club signalling a rather unexpected return to cricket. In his second innings in cricket, he performed so well that he bagged the cricketer of the year at Kowloon Cricket Club in 1986“There was no competitive pressure and I played for fun. Suddenly I found that I was beginning to enjoy the game a lot and that resulted in me scoring a lot of runs for that club.”
Builds a big network through cricket
Cricket in Hongkong helped him expand his network as the who’s who of the country came and watched the club matches. Lords Taverners from the UK that included David Gower, Minor Counties, Oxford and Cambridge, the international teams from New Zealand and England all came to Hongkong to play cricket and it was great fun for SM to play against top notch players. An unofficial Indian team comprising of Madan Lal, Maninder and Ravi Shastri among others too visited Hongkong and SM had the opportunity to play against them as well. It was great cricketing fun without the pressure of looking for a 'Ranji debut' and that helped him express himself much more as a batsman. Soon he was in touch with the Chief Justice and Governor and the top Corporate Chiefs.“On a day when I scored a century against Dunlop, my wife too had come to watch me bat. As we got talking at the end of the match with the opposition members, she unexpectedly landed up a finance job!!!”
After over a decade with IOB, he quit the bank and joined State Bank of Victoria in 1987. His cricketing engagement continued unabated. At the turn of that decade, he played in the world cup qualifier for Hongkong and top scored against Holland though the team lost the match “The opportunity to play against top players was greatly satisfying and I enjoyed it thoroughly”, says Krishnakumar on that cricketing phase in Hongkong in the second half of the 1980s.
In 1990, he moved to Singapore where too he played cricket with a good deal of interest and joy for the rivalry with Malaysia was intense. He played around 15 games every year though the heat and humidity drained him many a time when he played a long innings.
Retires from cricket after almost 30 years
After almost three decades of non stop cricket, he finally ‘retired’ from playing in 1996 when he moved to Sydney“The Asian Crisis towards the end of that decade meant I had very little time for anything outside of work. It was an extremely busy phase at work and I let go of cricket after I moved to Australia.”
SM turns Selector - A third stint in Cricket
In 2001, he moved back to Hongkong and once more to his surprise, he found a cricketing association coming his way. He was appointed as the Selector for age group teams and by 2005 had become the Chairman of Selectors of Hongkong at a time when Robin Singh was the coach. It was during this phase when the country also made it to the Asia Cup in Pakistan.
Gets TN team to play in Hongkong
It was in that phase that current CEO of CSK and former VP of the BCCI KS Viswanathan went as a manager of the TN team that toured Hongkong “As a batsman, he was very gritty and did well very well as a team man for every team that he played. Soon after the Ranji finals around two decades ago, it was SM who invited the TN team to Hongkong to play a few matches there as part of their 150th year celebrations. It was a great experience for all the players.”
A dignified person with a penchant for the English Language
TN hat-trick man from the 1970s, B Kalyanasundaram (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2021/01/kalli-b-kalyanasundaram-selector-match.html), bowled a lot to Krishnakumar when he making his way up the ladder. He says that SM was a fighting cricketer and would not throw his wicket in a hurry. He was always difficult to dislodge "Unfortunately he could not play for TN in Ranji as he had to compete with quite a lot of top order batsmen like Kicha and Sivaramakrishnan.”
"SM has always been a very dignified person and I particularly like his English. His father Kumaraswamy was a very accomplished umpire and a wonderful gentleman very well-liked by many cricketers of our time and I was definitely one of them" says Kalli.
In 2009, he moved back to Sydney when international news agency Reuters offered him a writing engagement on the financial markets and has been with them for the last 15years as a currency analyst. Retirement is not in sight for this once Victorious Captain though he will turn 70 next year for he is greatly enjoying the writing work in his area of expertise.
He is all excited to be meeting his old cricketing friends this week after several years. He says cricket provided him with a never say die attitude and a confidence that one could bounce back from even seemingly impossible situations “I would have loved to have played at least one match for TN and the fact that I came close but couldn’t breakthrough into the XI remains a disappointment. But that pales into insignificance when I look back and count the huge number of friends I have made through cricket over the last 50 years. That everlasting 'cricket' friendship has been a great blessing that this life has given me and I am grateful for that."