CS DAYAKAR

 A Feisty All-rounder

By V Ramnarayan

Sometimes we tend to forget quiet interventions by individuals that have life-changing impacts on our lives. I for one have been guilty of failing to mention the crucial role CS Dayakar, my friend and spin twin of the 1960s, played in my cricket career while writing the story of my days as a cricketer. Looking back more than fifty years on, I realise what a gross omission that was, comparable to the lack of selectorial recognition that prevented Dayakar from exhibiting his sterling qualities as a left-hand all rounder to  wider audiences than the spectators watching college and league cricket in Madras during the two decades he was active in them.

I first met Dayakar at Vivekananda College during our Pre-University Course days in the academic year 1963-64. We knew each other as decent cricketers, but did not have too many interactions as we were in different groups, and while I think he was a member of the college team, I was not. I went on to Presidency College next year, and miraculously got selected to the college cricket team thanks to the efforts of two good Samaritans. The first of them was another left hander ‘Alley’ R Sridhar, who made sure I attended the selection trials after I had gone to college that day without my cricket kit, positive that I stood no chance of being picked. Living much closer to college than I, Alley rushed home during lunch and brought me white trousers and canvas shoes and dragged me forcibly to the nets in the evening. The second benefactor was the late Ram Ramesh, the captain of the Vivekananda College team, who in the previous season had failed to convince the Physical Director that I was good enough for his squad, and felt guilty about it. (It was his recommendation that had facilitated my turning out, quite successfully, for Jai Hind CC in the Madras league that same season). Ramesh was a towering presence—literally—at the Presidency selection nets, where he stood next to captain Bhaskar Rao and senior player Rajamani and brainwashed them into including  me in the team.

Dayakar had meanwhile lost a year by missing the PUC Sanskrit exam. He too joined Presidency next year, in the BSc Geology course, if I remember right—to my Chemistry major. I was a veteran of one season when he became my teammate in the academic year ’65-‘66, and we eventually forged what was arguably the most successful spin pair in Madras’s college cricket circuit for the next few years. There were quite a few class acts around, S Venkataraghavan, for example, leading a superb Engineering College attack, but few were limited to a pair of spinners as we were, though we too were for a while bolstered by the presence of a third spinner—in leggie PS Ramesh.

Dayakar was an accomplished all rounder, a gutsy one who invariably reserved his best for the toughest opposition. He belonged to a family of talented cricketers. His brothers Ekambaram, Kothandaraman, Padmanabhan, Umapathy and Kadiresan were all competitive and more than competent players.  A couple of them played first class cricket, Umapathy has for long been a coach in the MRF Pace Foundation, while the youngest brother Kathiresan, an excellent off-spinner-all rounder, was distinctly unlucky not to  graduate to Ranji Trophy cricket.

Dayakar bowled his left arm spin in a lovely arc, with a whiplash of an action that made the ball hurry off the wicket. His length and line were spot on, and the batsman had to contend with an awkward length that could create an optical illusion in the batsman. Our captain Ram—N Ram of The Hindu family—relied on him a great deal, sometimes bringing him on with the new ball.  When the shine was still intact, Dayakar bowled a deadly in-swinger to the right hander. He was in short a captain’s best friend who posed a complex mixture of problems to batsmen. I regarded him as a better bowler than me in our college years, and I always tried to play catch-up. He was the catalyst who—by both example and verbal encouragement—constantly pushed me to improve. We backed each other wholeheartedly and the outcome was a formidable combination that, with enthusiastic support from the fielders, won many a match for the team. Dayakar’s batting too was top class at that level—he rarely played at higher levels. He and other batsmen like John Alexander and Alley Sridhar were consistent scorers against strong teams, with all rounders Rajamani and SV Suryanarayanan chipping in creditably, especially if we lost our star batsmen like Ram and Premkumar early.    After these leading batsmen left college, we found fresh batting talents in the likes of MS Rajagopal and the lefthanded ‘Chama’ K Swaminathan.

Dayakar also pushed me hard to contribute in the batting department. We enjoyed some useful partnerships, even if the running between the wickets at his urging nearly caused my lungs to burst. It was an early wake-up call that forced me to work on my stamina and physical fitness. Though I made some runs, I was never in his class as a batsman.

Now for the crucial interventions Dayakar made in my cricket career. After my undergraduate degree, I was working at the desk in the Indian Express. It was work I had an aptitude for and enjoyed thoroughly, but I was unhappy enough with an instance of office politics to want to quit. At that precise moment came an invitation from Dayakar and the Presidency College Physical Director to go back there and do post graduate studies. With no prospect of playing serious cricket if I continued as a career journalist, I made the right decision in going back to college, as later events proved. With Dayakar and I enjoying elder statesmen status by now, we both thoroughly enjoyed resuming our partnership. Unfortunately, I had to discontinue my MA programme when my father’s poor health required my presence with the family at Calcutta, where Appa was working for Bank of India. By the time Appa got better, the first year MA exams were over, and I thought, “There goes my MA.” Dayakar waved his magic wand once again, and the college welcomed me back, allowing me to carry the three papers I had missed into the second year. Followed an excellent season for both of us, with several stellar all round performances by Dayakar ensuring that our relatively weak team often fought strong opposition gallantly and brought off a few unexpected wins. Leading the side, I had the great satisfaction of watching the considerable improvement of many newcomers  we managed to enable. 

One of the open secrets of our success that season was that Dayakar and I bowled every over from the time ‘Play’ was called in every important match, but allowed the others totally free to “express themselves” in 90% of all our matches, never yielding to the temptation to pick up relatively easy runs or wickets for ourselves. This was Dayakar’s brainchild, and I carried out the plan with conviction, but I regretted the strategy when I looked back on the season in later years, because it denied some good bowlers like PS Venkatesh, Osman Ali Khan and Kasi Viswanathan opportunities to prove themselves in stiff contests.

Dayakar and I were both selected to represent Madras University in the Rohinto Baria Trophy matches played at Dharwar, Karnataka, but my spin twin declined the offer fearing that he would not find a place in the playing eleven. I was disappointed with his decision, because I was keen to continue our bowling firm, which was now a well-oiled machine of five years’ standing. I had a reasonable if unspectacular outing for the university.

Dayakar’s final intervention in my career: Despite consistent success in college cricket for four consecutive seasons, I had been content to play in the lower divisions of the TNCA league, partly because I believed some people I trusted when they told me I was not ready yet for the First Division. Nothing could have been more absurd, and I was missing opportunities by underestimating my ability. It was Dayakar who bulldozed me at the start of the 1969-70 season into joining him at Alwarpet CC  being led by our former college captain N Ram. That was the first tentative step I took towards entering first class cricket.

I left Chennai in December 1970 to join State Bank of India in Andhra Pradesh, and wound my way soon to Hyderabad, where I made my Ranji Trophy debut nearly five years later, after long struggle. Dayakar joined Indian Overseas Bank, Madras, where he was a key member of the cricket team for a long time. Busy with my own cricket, family and banking career, I no longer followed Dayakar’s cricket closely. Was he ever considered fit material to represent the state in first class cricket? I have no doubt in my mind that Tamil Nadu let him and itself down by failing to acknowledge the merit of this fighting all round cricketer.