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| For the love of cricket... |
| The MG Kailis group and the Sanmar group instituted
the M G Kailis-Chemplast Trophy in 1988 to be awarded to the winner
of an annual match to be played between the state cricket teams of
Tamil Nadu and Western Australia. The brainchild of N Sankar and the
late M G Kailis, the trophy was instituted with the hope that it would
promote friendly relations between Western Australia and Tamil Nadu
through cricket. |
| Appropriately, in the inaugural year, Tamil
Nadu had won the Ranji Trophy for the national championship
in India while Western Australia had annexed the Sheffield Shield,
Australia’s national title. The Tamil Nadu team visited
Perth, Western Australia in November 1988 for the first match
for the trophy.Tamil Nadu fared badly, losing the four-day fixture
and a couple of one-day games. When the Western Australian team
came to Chennai, then Madras, in September 1989, centuries by
Chemplast players B Arun and Robin Singh helped Tamil Nadu pile
up 503 runs but the match was drawn without an innings being
completed. Thus retaining the trophy, Western Australia also
won the one-day match. |
| Regardless of the outcome of the matches,
the tournament provided much needed exposure to young cricketers
from Tamil Nadu who gained valuable experience of playing an
international class side on both Indian and foreign soil. It
was at the time hoped that the trophy would become a permanent
fixture but unfortunately it was not to be. |
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| M G Kailis (centre) and N Sankar (extreme right)
seen with the trophy. |
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The Bicentennial M G Kailis-Chemplast Trophy.
Graeme Wood the Western Australia captain
receiving the trophy from K S Narayanan in September 1989.
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