Ramya Sundaresan Kapadia, Bharatanatyam in Carolyn's Garden

Ramya Sundaresan Kapadia, Bharatanatyam in Carolyn's Garden

Zindagi

Phir Na Kije Meri Gustakh Nigahi

phir na kije meri gustakh..asha bhosale-mukesh- sahir ludhianvi-khayyam-...

Captains, known and unknown

'PROUD OF MY HERITAGE' : KALLICHARRAN

 

(An interview I did with Alvin Kallicharran in 1992.)

 Evening Madras, Sunday April 5 1992

 Alvin Kallicharran is one of the greatest left hand batsmen in the history of cricket. Like another illustrious West Indian of Indian origin, Rohan Kanhai, Kallicharran captured the imagination of cricket - lovers and critics alike. His technique will satisfy the most demanding of purists while his stroke production is sheer art. For one known for his fearless aggression against the most hostile pace bowling, "Kalli" is a facile player of spinners too as he proved time and again in India against the fabled spin trio. Kallicharran's career was unfortunately touched by controversy when he defied world opinion and his cricket board by playing cricket for a living in South Africa during the days of apartheid. Recently in India to play some charity and benefit matches and to visit Satya Sai Baba, Kallicharran spoke his mind on the subject in conversation with V. Ramnarayan. Excerpts from the conversation.

 When you were playing in South Africa, were there blacks playing there?

 Yes. There was Omar Henry, who played in the recent World Cup and a .couple of others who are in the squad touring West Indies now. There aren't too many good coloured cricketers, though. The blacks in South Africa are more football people; cricket doesn't excite them. But having said 1.hat, I must also say they were very, very encouraging especially during the West Indian rebel tour of South Africa. They found it particularly exciting we beat a white team. I think in our own small way, we the rebels did a lot to promote cricket in that area.

 You think you've played a small role in the dismantling of apartheid by going out there and giving the blacks pride through your performances?

 I am glad South Africa is now back in the international scene, but we sportsmen have no control over politics. We are sportsmen involved in our job. In our own little way we bring about communication between peoples. It is time people sat up and listened to sportsmen instead of making decisions for sportsmen.

 Did your Indian roots impact the way you were treated.

I am very proud of my Indian heritage.  I don't know whether my Indian origin had anything to do with it. But Viv Richards made a statement a couple of years ago that he was happy the West Indies was at last a full African side. That is not the way the West Indian captain should speak. Especially in my country, Guyana it is a very insensitive thing to say in view of the political situation there. Viv really hurt the Indians in Guyana.

 You were at the peak of your powers when you served your exile from Test cricket.

 I know it was a sacrifice I was making while going to South Africa. But what I was not going to do was to let West Indies cricket dictate my career. God blessed me with some ability with which I decided to earn a living from cricket. I was using the potential in me. Our cricket careers are short. Financial security for one's family is important and I wanted to create some for my family. When the opportunity to go to South Africa came, I took the chance because I could see my relationship with the West Indies board declining. Captaincy was not important to me. I am a happy-go-lucky chap who loves cricket But I found I was not getting the respect I deserved as a senior player. Of course I missed Test cricket. I still do. If you look at my record in county cricket and South Africa during my ban it was phenomenal. I was proving a point to my detractors. Generally people start fading away once out of Test cricket, their performances drop, they become negative but I went the other way. I still wanted to be talked about in the cricketing world, as one of the top three or four batsmen in the game. To me the cricket I was playing was Test cricket. I am still playing at 43, still enjoying my cricket. I love the game and I don't think I am finished yet. I retired from county cricket only a year ago because of a bad back. And if that gets better, who knows, I may yet make a comeback. I want to give cricket 100% always.

 When Clive Lloyd came back from Packer's World Series,  if you had been retained as captain instead, would you have gone in for the same four-pacemen combination that he did?

 West Indies had this weapon of pace which is their strength to win Test matches. There were these great fast bowlers Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Joel Gamer and Colin Croft. They were all tremendous and then Malcolm Marshall came along. We couldn't leave out any of them. The available spinners were not that good. Test cricket, any sport, is all about winning and there's no point in playing spinners in the side if they are not going to win matches for you. However, I think the time has come now for the reintroduction of spin. Mainly because of the rules governing short pitched bowling and intimidation. The bouncer as a weapon cannot be used freely any more because of the restrictions. You can see the spinners coming back into the game now as we saw in the World Cup.

 Any promising spinners in the West Indies?

 Yes, there a couple of good leg spinners, particularly a chap called Dhanraj.

 What does Satya Sai Baba mean to you?

 Oh, he has uplifted me. He is the ultimate. To meet him is divine. He has been my inspiration since I had my first darshan of him in 1979. I write to him often, think of him all the time and owe him much for what I am today.

THE BEST TEST UMPIRE INDIA NEVER HAD

 IVATURI SIVARAM

By V Ramnarayan

 Most of us are familiar with stories of unfair treatment of some cricketers by the selectors, but Hyderabad’s Ivaturi Sivaram’s story is one of rank injustice done to an umpire.   Many Indian cricketers of the last three decades have felt that Sivaram was one of the best umpires they have come across. Ravi Shastri, for instance, was once quoted as saying, “Sivaram is the future.” 65-year-old Sivaram who retired from cricket in 2009, has however never stood in a Test match, never been nominated to the ICC panel of on-field umpires, and was dropped from the ICC panel of TV umpires without a trial. 

Starting unusually young and performing with distinction for three decades, Sivaram was in a manner of speaking an umpire in the S Venkataraghavan mould, tall and erect, intensely focussed on his job, firm in his decision making based on sound theoretical and practical knowledge. In the early part of his umpiring career, he was often younger than the players in the matches he was officiating in, though evidently quite unfazed by that. His confidence and integrity stood out so clearly that few players, if any, questioned his decisions, while few of his decisions left room for dissent.  

I was always an admirer of Sivaram who stood in some of the matches I played in the 1970s. I was so impressed that I expected him to walk effortlessly into international duty. Little did I know then that he would receive a raw deal in his career, that umpires too were like players subject to the whims and fancies of authority, that Sivaram would one day be “hanged without a trial,” (the headline of a TOI story by Sumit Mukherjee of how Sivaram was axed from the ICC panel of TV umpires without a single opportunity in a whole series) much in the manner of players who move in and out of a 15-man squad without playing a single match on a whole tour or in a complete tournament. Though Sivaram officiated in ODIs in India, his Test chances never came, not even after he was unofficially asked to be ready to umpire in a particular Test match in 1986. Not unusual in Indian cricket, the job went to another, senior, umpire who pleaded for one last game. “Sivaram was after all young, with a bright future ahead of him, so he could afford to wait,” was the argument. The Test match debut never came.

 Sivaram is made of sterner stuff. He not only took his disappointments in his stride, but after his retirement from umpiring, resumed his affair with an earlier love—music. I was thrilled to learn from an article by N Jagannath Das in Telangana Today, that Sivaram is a veena vidwan. The umpire who refused to pull strings to enhance his cricket career has gone back to playing that string instrument of antiquity that still adorns south Indian classical music, having learnt the art first from his mother in his pre-teen years, and later from the music of the late maestro Chittibabu, who called Sivaram his Ekalavya sishya or long distance disciple. His mother 

Mrs I Chellayi was an A grade artiste of All India Radio and a lecturer in the Government Music College of Secunderabad. Sivaram joined the college as a student at age 12 and completed a three-year certificate course. He was only 22 when his hero Chittibabu allowed him to accompany him on the veena in an album entitled Musings of a Musician, in which the percussion accompaniment was provided by eminent musicians Guruvayur Dorai, Kamalakar Rao and Manjunath. Sivaram cherishes the memory of “the experience of practising with my guru and those stalwarts.”

Sivaram was undoubtedly a boy prodigy. And not just in music, for he first umpired in the Moin-ud-Dowla Gold Cup tournament of Hyderabad when barely 17, even before he had formally qualified as an umpire. His inspiration came from his father, the late IVS Sastry, an enthusiastic amateur sportsman and umpire in the Hyderabad cricket league, and his uncle, the late Ramana Rao a BCCI umpire. Ramana Rao first allowed Sivaram the opportunity to co-umpire a local league match with him when he was just 15. “You will be a better umpire than player,” he told the young wicket keeper-batsman, and before long, he was standing in that Gold Cup match in 1971, thrilled to watch the greats of the day like ML Jaisimha, Hanumant Singh, EAS Prasanna, BS Chandrasekhar and GR Viswanath from close quarters. A rare combination of cricketing genes and musical genes, Sivaram owes much in his growth as an umpire to Ramana Rao and Test umpire VK Ramaswamy, his “role model.”

 Having qualified as a BCCI panel umpire by 1978, Sivaram made his Duleep Trophy debut in 1986, and did his first ODI in 1994.  He made steady progress and earned appreciation at every stage from players, officials and visiting commentators. A memorable stumping decision involving New Zealander Roger Twose in a 1995 ODI that he made without referring to the TV umpire won him compliments from commentator Ian Smith and match referee GR Viswanath. English umpire David Sheppard was one of his seniors who had a good word for him. An unforgettable moment came during his Duleep Trophy debut, when his explanation of Sunil Gavaskar’s dismissal on 94 earned him an approving nod and a tap on his shoulder. “How did I miss that ball?” the Little Master had asked the young umpire.

It must be a huge disappointment not ever officiating in a Test match, a rude shock to have been dropped from the ICC Panel without a single opportunity to prove himself on the field, but Ivaturi has taken all that on his chin like a good soldier, secure in the knowledge that he performed admirably throughout a distinguished umpiring career in first class matches, mentored umpires through workshops, officiated in the inaugural IPL season and contributed in numerous ways to improvement in umpiring standards. Now in his second innings as a musician, he has always enjoyed the blessings of his mother who at 90 still mentors him, and the lifelong support of wife Venkataramani and brother Kanakachalam in all he does.