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TIGER

 

MASTER OF UNDERSTATEMENT

Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi would have turned 80 yesterday, but he left us a little over nine years ago. Encomiums poured in for the courage that enabled him to play at the highest level despite losing his vision in one of his eyes, his heroic batting exploits on the numerous occasions he triumphed over his disability, his tactical nous as captain of India, and above all, his two major contributions to Indian cricket: the upliftment of fielding standards; and the expulsion of the scourge of regionalism in the team.

There was an inspirational if somewhat unsubtle scene in the Hindi movie Chak De India, in which the coach played by Shahrukh Khan tells the Indian women’s hockey team that they are all India players, not representatives of Maharashtra, Bihar, Bengal or Haryana. Anyone familiar with Indian cricket of the 1960s can easily relate to this scene. It was Pataudi who first spoke those words unequivocally almost as soon as he took charge as captain. He set a personal example by insisting on the best combination being selected no matter where the players emerged from. Yes, he did have his favourites—who, incidentally, all performed—but no one could accuse him of regional bias.  He set high standards as a fielder, proving quicker, more athletic, and accurate (with his brilliant throws) than the youngest members of his team. He demanded bruised knees and turf-stained trousers and shirts from his boys—even if it meant some of them had to incur exorbitant laundry charges as the diving, sliding nawab was known to borrow gear from his teammates after arriving nonchalantly flannel-less at the ground!  

Ajit Wadekar was rightly credited with masterminding India’s first overseas  series wins against West Indies and England, both in 1971. Tiger Pataudi led India to its first Test series victory abroad—by a convincing 3-1 margin over New Zealand in 1968,  after top batsman Graham Dowling (239) and fast bowler Gary Bartlett (6 for 38) had sent the Indians hurtling to a crushing defeat in the second Test at Christchurch. He not only scored consistently, but inspired his colleagues to do their best as well. All rounder Rusi Surti was his faithful lieutenant and tireless soldier,  Wadekar scored the only Test hundred of his career during that series, and EAS Prasanna added 24 more scalps to his impressive 25 Australian victims in the first half of that twin tour. The eight-Test campaign proved that India could compete well abroad. Except for one match, India put up a gallant fight in all four Tests in Australia, though she lost 0-4. The captain, who missed the first Test through a hamstring injury, came in for high praise from the Australian press for his outstanding batting in the series "on one good leg and with one good eye."

Back in India, the home team gave several anxious moments to the touring Australians before the visitors eventually prevailed. The tour by New Zealand that followed perhaps proved Pataudi's undoing as captain. Though it was never officially stated, it was believed  that chairman of selectors Vijay Merchant bludgeoned his way (with his casting vote) through the meeting that deposed Pataudi and anointed Ajit Wadekar India's new captain because he had been dissatisfied with the discipline standards of the team that season. While Pataudi was believed to be no admirer of Vijay Merchant the man, he had huge respect for his batting—and Bombay cricket in general.

Declining invitations to tour abroad again, Tiger made an impressive comeback against England in the 1972-73 season at captain Wadekar's express request, and eventually came back as India captain when Wadekar announced his retirement, hounded by critics after India's disastrous 1974 tour of England. The rest is history, with Pataudi entering his best phase as captain, despite failing abjectly as batsman against the fiery West Indies attack. India fought back after being two down against the mighty West Indies to draw level at 2-2, but was trounced by the tourists, with skipper Clive Lloyd (242) going on a rampage.

Tiger's greatest contribution as India's captain was perhaps the forging of the famed spin quartet and virtually inventing the awesome close-in cordon that was to become the template for many future teams. He was known to favour the Bedi-Prasanna-Chandrasekhar trio, but once said that the fourth spinner S Venkataraghavan would have been a permanent member of his eleven as an all rounder had he paid more attention to batting for which he had considerable talent.

Pataudi's work ethic was unquestionable, but he owed allegiance to an old-fashioned school of thought that believed that what a player did off the field or what hours he kept during match days was entirely his business, so long as he remained match-fit, and delivered on the ground. A whole generation of cricketers could have performed better than they did had there been greater monitoring of their regimen by the team management. India might have emerged sooner as a strong force in world cricket..

Pataudi who never bragged about his achievements was self-deprecatory to a fault. Any underlying sadness about what might have been had he not lost an eye in a car accident was hidden away from the public. He bore personal loss and sorrow stoically, often with a smile. He was a champion of young talent, and many stars benefited from his kindly gaze. GR Viswanath, BS Bedi, BS Chandrasekhar and EAS Prasanna were among those he spotted early, when he was himself not much older than they. He left his home cricket team of Delhi to join his friend ML Jaisimha in the Hyderabad team, and became an honorary 'southerner' in Indian cricket. Crowds in this part of the world loved him. So did his Hyderabad and South Zone teammates, as well as his rivals in the zone. In his last innings at Chepauk, he signed off in great style with 198 against Tamil Nadu in the 1975-'76 season. Few in the 30,000 strong crowd knew it was his farewell knock. Nor did the 21 others who played the match along with him. After all, he was the ultimate master of understatement.

 

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N. Sankar, at 75

V. RAMNARAYAN

If S. Muthiah was our founder, N. Sankar was our saviour. As Muthiah never tired of saying, had not Sankar stepped in at a crucial point in the life of Madras Musings and placed it on a sound financial footing with support from multiple corporate houses, the magazine would have been short lived. On the occasion of his 75th birthday, we wish our saviour and patron-in-chief many more years of good health and all happiness – The Editor

A true icon of Indian industry will turn 75 on November 19th. At the forefront of the Indian PVC manufacturing segment for over four decades, N. Sankar, the chairman of The Sanmar Group, presiding over a US $ one billion diversified multinational group, has been a role model for entrepreneurs and institution builders alike, characterised by an unusual combination of business acumen and ethical conviction – upright, farsighted, innovative. A pioneer in PVC manufacture, he was responsible for some of the most original choices made in the field including the highly integrated manufacturing processes at the numerous facilities of Chemplast, its flagship company, now over fifty years old.

Though the son and grandson of trailblazers in the history of south Indian industry and commerce – respectively K.S. Narayanan and S.N.N. Sankaralinga Iyer – Sankar was not born with a silver spoon, certainly not in a career sense. He obtained his B.Sc. (Tech) in Chemical Engineering from the AC College of Technology, Madras, graduating with distinction, and a Masters degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. He joined Chemplast in 1967 to help his father. In an interview years ago for Rediff News by Shobha Warrier, he recalled, “I was born in an entrepreneurial family of three generations, so automatically I also became an entrepreneur. I had no funds of my own to start an enterprise at that time. From 1967 to 1972, I worked with Chemplast, reporting to S. Ramaswamy, the chief executive of the company. I learnt a lot from him in those five years. He taught me simple things from how to draft a letter to how to manage people. Those were the most difficult times for Chemplast. But I learnt to cope with it.”

In 1972, Sankar started his entrepreneurial career, borrowing from friends and investors to acquire a majority stake in a company called Industrial Chemicals and Monomers. Determined to bring in technology to India to manufacture products of excellence as a measure of import substitution, he, all of 26 years old, was writing letters to foreign companies seeking collaboration with them, something very nearly unheard of then.

In search of mechanical seals it needed, Chemplast zoomed in on Durametallic of Michigan as its choice. Durametallic India at Karapakkam. Madras, resulted, growing into what is now Sanmar Engineering Technolgies Private Limited, an engineering group within the Sanmar Group, catering to a wide range of process industries – even India’s space missions – in need of components that principally ensure safety where the slightest risks must be ruled out. Several successful joint ventures have followed Durametallic India (now Flowserve Sanmar).

Sankar has over the decades ensured that these joint ventures with global corporations are models for emulation. He has clearly enunciated a joint venture philosophy which can be summarised somewhat on these lines: Both partners should appreciate the need for the joint venture. They should clearly agree on the way the JV will be managed, they must work towards a system based on trust and transparency. There must be appropriate interaction at different functional levels for the ongoing operations of the JV, and clearly defined high level contacts at both ends for management decision-making on important issues calling for the involvement of both partners. Finally, both partners need to be equally able to serve the growing capital needs of the JV as it expands.

Always leading the way with its concern for the environment, the chemicals division of Sanmar under Sankar has made a fine art of ZLD or zero liquid discharge at its manufacturing facilities, amidst a whole slew of steps taken to ensure sustainable growth.

Corporate governance is an article of faith with Sankar, who must count among his contribution to best practices in business and industry the manner in which Sanmar has evolved a clear-cut management philosophy, its HR policy based on competence and a performance culture, and an elaborately spelt out ethics manual that guides employees on how they can implicitly follow the group’s code of conduct in a variety of circumstances that they may encounter.

Identifying the right person for the right job and empowering his employees to function competently and ethically without fear seem to come naturally to Sankar.

“Strictly follow the law of the land, so that we can all sleep well at night” could well be defined as his paramount mantra to them.

Make no mistake, N. Sankar is a tough, demanding boss. Tasks must be completed in the proper timeframe, decisions should be based on irrefutable logic, information should be communicated clearly, honestly, and such communication has no hierarchy. It only takes him a couple of minutes to see through bluff and inadequate preparation for meetings. He is a master of follow-up, not for him dereliction in the guise of delegation. His attention to detail and meticulous planning do rub off on his managers who are empowered to discharge their responsibilities fearlessly, for so long as they do all that is required of them sincerely, failure will not be punished.

Sankar is known for his steadfast friendships and loyalties. Just as he treated S. Ramaswami, his first, and only, boss with due respect until his retirement, he developed strong bonds with his mentors and senior colleagues. If he found in any of them qualities that could serve the group well, he took advantage of their expertise and wisdom for as long as possible. His professor Dr. G.S. Laddha was one such person of eminence who served on the Chemplast board of directors for more than three decades. For all that his decisions seemed based on cold logic, they could be, and often were, tempered by the human touch – without prejudice to business sense. A sterling example was the way Sankar and his father Narayanan rallied round senior employee S.R. Seshadri, devastated by the loss of his wife while he was at Mettur working for Chemplast. They assisted his relocation to Madras and psychological rehabilitation by approving his pet project to manufacture mechanical seals, vital components required by Chemplast and the process industry in general. The end result was the joint venture Durametallic India. Firmly of the belief that public recognition and approbation are more important than monetary rewards, Sanmar not only honoured him properly during his tenure there but also posthumously by the establishment of the SR Seshadri Training Institute for its employees. Sankar also never hesitated to utilise the services of his most accomplished colleagues beyond their retirement age. Examples are S.B. Prabhakar Rao, M.N. Radhakrishnan and R. Kalidas. He also did not hesitate to reopen Sanmar’s doors to employees who left the group when they sought reentry if he felt they could serve Sanmar well all over again.

The recipient of honours and awards of every description including lifetime achievement awards from state level and national level apex bodies for the chemical industry, Sankar has been a highly respected figure while helming such bodies as Assocham, the Madras Chamber of Commerce and the Madras Management Association, besides sports bodies like the Tamil Nadu as well as the All India Tennis Association, the Madras Cricket Club and Tamil Nadu Cricket Association.

A keen sportsman, Sankar had to forego his ambition to become a top flight cricketer after polio struck him when he was 17, but a doubles champion at the university level partnering N. Srinivasan of India Cements, he continued his love affair with tennis well into his sixties, playing regularly at the Madras Cricket Club courts finding in it the perfect relaxation after a hard day’s work.
It is very well known that Sankar has been one of the finest patrons of cricket in India. The Sanmar family started supporting the iconic team Jolly Rovers Cricket Club in 1966, when India Cements adopted the team and hired cricketers from far and wide inviting players from other states like Mysore and Andhra, with the company’s director K.S. Narayanan enthusiastically leading the search party, as it were. Jolly Rovers dominated Madras cricket for many years, sweeping the league title repeatedly.

The golden jubilee of the Sanmar family-Jolly Rovers association was made memorable by an emotional gathering at Chennai of all living members of that first champion side in July 2015 and exactly a year later by the release by the great all rounder Kapil Dev of a book Cricket for the Love of it to commemorate this record association, accompanied by a presidential lecture by historian Ramachandra Guha.
The inaugural K.S. Narayanan Memorial Oration was delivered on January 30, 2016 by former England cricket captain David Gower. Every year since then, the Oration has maintained its high standards in both the quality of discourse as well as the unimpeachable credentials of the speakers. The crowning glory was the K.S. Narayanan Centenary Oration by former British Prime Minister David Cameron on January 30, 2019.
Sankar has never done anything by half measures and the way he has honoured his father’s memory is second only to the devotion with which he cared for him in his lifetime.

With son Vijay Sankar ready to take over from him whenever he is ready to hang up his boots, Sankar can look back with satisfaction at his journey as entrepreneur, institution builder and enabler of human potential in diverse fields.