May 25, 1998
|
|
|
|
History
of Turf Battles Memorable anecdotes lighten an otherwise weighty book on cricket in Madras. By R Mohan THE SPIRIT OF CHEPAUK: THE MCC
STORY
The Tendulkar century that helped seal a Test win and set the trend for the series was just another magical moment from international cricket action at the Chepauk. Old timers of the Madras Cricket Club (MCC) are still raving about the innings, calling it a "modern classic". The home of cricket in Chennai has seen other telling performances from India's greats. Tendulkar's match-winning innings is perhaps second only to Kapil Dev's all-round performance that helped India win the series against Pakistan in 1979-80. The mcc's sports-minded fraternity may believe such performances are a tribute to the sporting spirit the club has nurtured over the years. The eminent historian from Chennai, S. Muthiah, has traced the history of MCC and the sporting tradition it helped establish for a whole city. The undercurrents are still strong, and there are eternal mutterings over the rights the club enjoys at its modern dwelling beneath the concrete of the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium. But there is no denying the role played by its pioneering administrators who helped stage the first international matches in the city. The MCC, of course, wasn't without bias against the Indians; senior cricketers still remember that the shade of Chepauk's baobab trees was their dressing room, while their opponents, the Marylebone Cricket Club, used the far more comfortable amenities in the now demolished Indo-Saracen style Irwin Pavilion. The club pumped the bounty from international matches back to the game and its rightful organisers. Imagine anyone being so charitable these days. Beyond their role in cultivating Madras cricket, people like Daniel Richmond, Robert Denniston, C.P. Johnstone and H.P. Ward set the tone not only for sport and sportsmanship, but through their commitment to club life they also set rules for society as such. The transformation of a town seduced by alcohol and gambling in its early days into a conservative capital city, is perhaps understandable even if all the credit does not go to the cricket-playing Englishmen. Just in case it is imagined that things were always hunky-dory in a cricket-crazy city like Chennai which could watch the finest cricketers perform on the once-baize-like Chepauk turf, consider this episode from the match against Douglas Jardine's Marylebone Cricket Club side in 1934. Naoomal Jeoomal was injured while trying to pull a ball and the crowd pelted stones at the left-arm pace bowler "Nobby" Clark while barracking the captain. Inured as he must have been to such hostile reaction from the crowds, "Iron Duke" Jardine expressed his appreciation of the Madras crowd before he left. Anecdotes like these lighten what has to be a weighty history book. The book will serve as a trip down memory lane for those weaned on the stirring deeds of fine players of the game on Chepauk's turf.
|
|
Issue Contents | Write to us | Subscriptions © Living Media India Ltd |
 |
 |
Sachin Tendulkar
has just pulled Shane Warne and the ball offers a tantalising touch to a leaping Ricky
Ponting's fingers at mid-wicket before hitting the fence. This was perhaps the most
crucial moment in the first Test at Chepauk in the recently concluded India-Australia
series. A piece of contemporary history. 
