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Jolly Rovers triumph again
Jolly Rovers Cricket Club, sponsored by the Sanmar group for over three decades, regained the Raja of Palayampatti Shield awarded to the winners of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association’s First Division League, after a lapse of nine years. Divakar Vasu, who led the team admirably, was the most successful bowler of the season with a bag of 54 wickets. He was ably supported by S R Ganesh Kumar (42 wickets) and H Ramkishen (38 wickets), and among batsmen by openers Sujith Somasundar (679 runs), J R Madanagopal (423 runs) and S Ramesh (336 runs).
This year, Chemplast sponsored three first division teams – Alwarpet Cricket Club, Prasad CC and Jolly Rovers – a logical extension of the group’s efforts over the years to encourage talented cricketers. Some of these players have represented Tamil Nadu and India in national and international competitions. A major factor behind Jolly Rovers’ success has been the excellent practice facility the company offers. The IIT Chemplast Sanmar cricket ground is a first rate playing venue. Its English village green ambience is completed by the superb Sanmar Pavilion which was dedicated by former Australian Test player Neil Harvey. Besides Vijay Sankar who takes an active interest in all three teams, the Sanmar cricket think tank includes former state and Test cricketers, Bharat Reddy, B Arun and Abdul Jabbar
The Sanmar group’s association with cricket goes back a long way. The parent company, India Cements Limited, was the foremost patron of the game in Tamil Nadu in the 1960s with Managing Director K S Narayanan personally monitoring the progress of the team. In 1966, when the group took Jolly Rovers under its wing, it had prominent players like P K Belliappa, Najam Hussain, K R Rajagopal, K S Kannan, P S Narayanan, B Kalyanasundaram, S Venkataraghavan, A K Vijayaraghavan, K Bharadwaj, V R Rajaraghavan and George Thomas in its ranks.
Jolly Rovers has won a number of prestigious tournaments around the country showing remarkable consistency and tremendous fighting qualities over the years.
The Jolly Rovers Cricket Club which won the Palayampatti Shield for the First Division League of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association.
Sitting (L to R): J R Madanagopal, Siddartha Medappa, Abdul Jabbar (Coach), Bharat Reddy (Manager), Vijay Sankar, Director, Sanmar group, D Vasu (Captain), S Ramesh, Sujith Somasundar.
Standing (L to R): Tinu Yohanan, P T Subramaniam, S R Ganesh Kumar, M Subramaniam, P Muthupandian, T R Arasu, Ajay N Kudua, C Hemant Kumar, K S Shahabuddin, and H Ramkishen.
Notable triumphs
In 1966-67, Jolly Rovers won the First Division League title for the first time and finished runner up to State Bank in the Hindu Trophy. Since then it has won the Palayampatti Shield eight times and the Hindu Trophy (formerly Sport and Pastime Cup) an equal number of times. It also won the highly competitive all India Buchi Babu Memorial Trophy three times in a row in the late sixties.
From 1967-68 onwards, for four glorious years, Jolly Rovers won two of the three competitions then existing – the League, the Hindu Trophy and the Buchi Babu Invitation Tournament.
During the mid seventies, the company’s involvement in cricket flagged and other institutional teams emerged; for example, SPIC, Lucas TVS and State Bank, which dominated the scene until the eighties.
Jolly Rovers in the eighties
In 1982, former Test cricketer Bharat Reddy joined Chemplast and with him came many state cricketers, including Test players L Sivaramakrishnan, B Arun and V B Chandrasekar. During this period, the group sponsored the Chemplast Pasadena Tournament of three day matches and co-sponsored matches between Tamil Nadu and Western Australia. The M G Kailis group of companies of Western Australia was the other sponsor of the series and the trophy was named the M G Kailis-Chemplast Trophy.
In the late ’80s and ’90s
The Jolly Rovers team won the Chemplast Pasadena Trophy in the inaugural year 1987-’88, as also the inaugural Indian Bank Trophy in the same year and emerged winners of the MCC-Dyanora Cricket Tournament in 1988-’89.
In 1990, shortly after bagging the Indian Bank Trophy, Chemplast completed a hat-trick of triumphs winning the Chemplast Trophy for the third successive year.
In the same year, the Chemplast team entered the final of the Escorts Tournament at New Delhi, losing to star-studded Escorts XI. It also finished runner-up in the N N Mohan Memorial Trophy at Ghaziabad.
During the 1990-’91 and 1991-’92 seasons, Jolly Rovers regained the Palayampatti Shield, won the Arlem Trophy at Goa and finished runners-up in the Escorts Trophy and the Hindu Trophy. S Sharath and Tanveer Jabbar of the Chemplast team represented the India under 19 side against the visiting New Zealand team during 1991-’92 and met with success. In 1992-’93, Chemplast captured the Hindu Trophy beating Indian Bank in the final.
In January 1993, Chemplast finished runners-up to Sungrace Mafatlal in the Arlem Trophy. Chemplast also won the senior title of the Canopy Pepsi All India Invitation Cricket Championship at Bangalore by defeating Dunlop XI.
In 1993-’94, Chemplast finished second to Globe Trotters in the TNCA league, again losing to Sungrace Mafatlal in the Arlem Trophy. In 1994-’95 Jolly Rovers finished second in the senior division league table. They won the Pooja Knock-out Cricket Tournament at Tiruppunitura held soon afterwards. They regained the Arlem Trophy after a lapse of three years, Chemplast players walking away with many awards.
The 1995-96 cricket season was one of mixed fortunes for Chemplast. The team did little of note but its youngsters Balaji Rao, S Sharath, Reuben Paul and D Vasu performed well. Chemplast players played important roles as Tamil Nadu reached the Ranji Trophy final for the first time in four years. Chemplast reached the final of the Hindu Trophy, losing to India Cements. In the next season, the Hindu Trophy final was contested once again by Chemplast and India Cements, the associate company triumphing once more.
Jolly Rovers took the third position in the TNCA league in 1997-’98, but Chemplast was joint winner of the Karnataka State Cricket Association’s Diamond Jubilee Cricket Tournament at Bangalore. The team won the Arlem Trophy at Goa.
The latest success in the TNCA league has been a happy culmination of the systematic team-building effort that began a couple of years ago when the IIT ground was adopted.