The bridegroom's father was beaming. Naturally. His son had not only done exceedingly well academically and found gainful employment in Europe, he had married a beautiful and accomplished girl. To fill Radhakrishnan's cup of joy, all his friends had attended the wedding and blessed the young couple, all his friends from cricket and all his former Parry colleagues were there in full attendance. Radhakrishnan or Ambi as he is known in family circles was a good club cricketer in his time, a batsman of good temperament and capable off spinner, who had served Parry's Sports and Recreation Club well for many years. Among those present at the wedding was MR Sreedhar, a fine all rounder from Bangalore, who bowled his off spinners with guile and accuracy, and played many a crucial innings in the seventies, good enough to play for Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in the Ranji Trophy.
Sreedhar was delighted to renew contact with his old cricket mates from the Madras of yore. Asked if he had anything to do with cricket administration or coaching, he answered in the negative. He was actively involved in tennis coaching, his academy spreading far and wide in Karnataka, already successful in conducting ATP tournaments at a number of venues. Soon, I ran into the daughter of another former Parry player and captain, Chander, who lived not far from the kalyana mandapam on Dr S Radhakrishnan Salai. I asked her if she had verified the story I had told her at our last meeting of a six I had hit off her father's bowling at Arts College ground on Mount Road back in the sixties. "Must have been a cross-batted slog," he told her. It had been on a ridiculously small ground and the ball had landed in the nearby Buckingham Canal. "Appa has a selective memory," Chander's daughter assured me, "all the shots he played were classic beauties, those made off his bowling were always slogs."
Ambi, Sreeedhar and Chander had been members of a powerful Parry line-up, often led by the redoubtable AG Kripal Singh. Can you imagine a Test cricketer playing in the lower division of the TNCA league today? That is precisely what Kripal did while leading Parry from the lower divisions towards the First. There were a number of other champion players like wicket keeper DL Chakravarthi, left arm spinner MK Murugesh, all rounder MK Iqbal, demon fast bowler BR Mohan Rai, and in later years such youngsters as Sreedhar and opener Mohan Das, who was later involved successfully in Charminar Challenge, the first sponsorship of the Ranji Trophy by his employers VST Ltd. Test off spinner S Venkataraghavan turned up for them when they earned promotion to the senior division.
Going back to the league match in which I hit that "cross batted" six off Chander, I was playing for Jai Hind CC, a struggling team led by our extremely clever but eccentric captain S Raman, the eldest of three brothers who all played state level table tennis. Under his imaginative captaincy, my bowling blossomed, and I averaged about four wickets per innings that year, my first full season in the league. I was barely 17, and when Raman promoted me from No. 11 to No. 3 in the batting order, I gleefully accepted, not realising that I owed my promotion to the reluctance of our so-called specialist batsmen to face the fire and fury of Mohan Rai, at the time arguably the fastest bowler in India. On the Arts College matting wicket, he was quite deadly, but I didn't know enough to know that. I played some daring drives in front of the wicket and Mohan Rai came in for much ribbing from his slip fielders for the treatment he was receiving from this beardless stripling.
Soon, intentionally or otherwise, Mohan let slip a short one, which I went to hook, only top edging it to my chin which started bleeding like a fountain. Stunned but reluctant to forego my rare gaji, I retired hurt, ran across Mount Road to Sahib Singhs, the round the clock drugstore, had the wound cleaned, had some tincture of iodine applied to the gash, stuck a Bandaid on it and came back and waited for a wicket to fall.
When I resumed my innings, I had the audacity to drive for boundaries the friendly half volleys Mohan Rai was kind enough to offer out of sympathy for me, until Kripal decided to eliminate any risk of further injury by taking Mohan off the attack. I went on to make 41, my highest by a wide margin for the season and boasted about it forever. (I am still doing it!)
I don't remember if Ambi took part in that match, but I clearly remember another match that same season, in which he scored a century. The Indian Express headlined that performance, and the first paragraph read: "S Radhakrishnan, son of Carnatic vocalist Semmangudi Srinivasier, scored a century for Parrys RC in the I division B zone today." Of course that report was factually accurate, for that is who Ambi is, but I wonder if he ever lived that report down among his cricket colleagues!
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