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Jolly
good show by Rovers |
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(Excerpts from an article in
the fortnightly
Madras Musings) |
| Jolly Rovers won this year’s Palayampatti
Shield for the first division league championship in an emphatic manner.
Under the new format introduced this year, they emerged winners in
a knockout among the top four in the league. |
| Jolly Rovers won a hard-fought battle against Globe
Trotters in the final at Chepauk, with some plucky batting displays
from both teams. Sujith Somasundar, who scored a hundred and Badrinath,
who missed one, gave their side a sound start, the scoreboard at one
stage reading 280 for 3, but there was a flurry of wickets thereafter,
the Chemplast-sponsored holders finishing at 336. Aashish Kapoor took
three wickets. Sriram (48), Senthilnathan (43) and Hemang Badani (62)
batted well for the MRF-sponsored runners-up, but in the end, Jolly
Rovers won by a convincing margin. The captain, D Vasu, with his left
arm spin, was the most successful bowler, striking decisive blows
at vital moments and finishing with 5 for 77. |
| With this year’s triumph, Jolly Rovers achieved
a record 12th first division title, starting as far back as the 1964-1965
season, when it was run by members of The Hindu family. |
| It was in the 1966-67 season that India Cements
adopted Jolly Rovers. They set about building a formidable combination
in right earnest, and at one stage had some of the finest players
the state had produced in its ranks. The team won the Palayampatti
Shield for three consecutive years from 1966-67 to 1968-69, repeating
the feat in 1970-71 and 1971-72. It won three times in the Eighties
and again in 1990-91. There was a decade-long gap after that and Jolly
Rovers had to wait until last season to finish on top of the table. |
| There was a fresh wave of recruitment in the mid
’70s when the team came under the management of Chemplast Sanmar.
In the early ’80s, Jolly Rovers won the league title three years
in a row under the captaincy of Bharat Reddy. |
| Through the eighties and nineties, the team continued
to do well in the TNCA league and all-India tournaments, with quite
a few of its members achieving national recognition. |
| Significantly, in the last couple of seasons, Jolly
Rovers set in a process of consolidation, when results were stressed
and time and effort were invested in a solid core of players, not
necessarily stars, who would stay with the team. They have shrugged
off the loss of key players to other teams at the beginning of the
season and still come out on top, largely through the efforts of the
captain Vasu and his dedicated support team consisting of coaches
Jabbar and Arun as well as Bharat Reddy who manages the affairs of
the team. They have carried the entire team with them. |
| Badrinath, Sujith Somasundar, Ajay Kudua and Dinesh
Mongia were among the runs during the season, while Vasu and fellow
spinners Ganesh Kumar and Ramkumar did the job with the ball. |
| Taking a keen interest on behalf of the Sanmar management
is Vijay Sankar, grandson of Chairman Emeritus K S Narayanan, who
started it all more than thirty years ago. Over the years, Narayanan’s
sons N Sankar and his younger brother N Kumar respectively Chairman
and Vice-Chairman of the Sanmar group, have been the inspiration behind
the success of the team. Rarely in the history of corporate sponsorship
has a business group made such a substantial long-term commitment
to the support of cricket. |
| An important factor in Jolly Rovers’ success
in recent years has been the superb IIT-Chemplast cricket ground and
the excellent practice facilities available there for the team –
and the other clubs sponsored by Chemplast. This is, of course, true
of a number of first division teams in Chennai, but the IIT-Chemplast
ground is indeed special, both in its delightful ambience and its
first rate pavilion. |
| By V Ramnarayan |
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The winners. Standing L-R: S Arun, S Badrinath,
R Ramkumar, L Balaji, Tinu Yohanan, B Arun (Manager), Vinnarasan
(Scorer), P Padmanabhan (Physical Trainer), T R Arasu.
Sitting L-R: Dinesh Mongia, S R Ganesh Kumar, D Vasu (Captain)
Bharat Reddy (Administrative Manager) H Ramkishen, Sujith Somasundar,
Abdul Jabbar (Coach).
Kneeling L-R: A G Srinivas, M Deepak, Ajay N Kudua, Jinju Joseph,
L Purshothaman and Chandran (Groundsman, IIT Chemplast). |
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