MRC1924-2024

  WARTIME CRICKET SK GURUNATHAN ‚The Madras cricket season for 1942 -43 will be remembered not so much for what happened during the year as for what did not happen. As a result of the air raid alarm in the city in April last, which, however, proved a damp squib, and due to certain other causes, especially grounds being used for dugouts, there was little enthusiasm for the game and Madras cricket went into doldrums. Neither did we conduct our league championship, which is ten years old, nor did we take part in the Ranji Trophy championship, for the first time since its inception. Maybe there were good reasons for this but there is no gainsaying the fact that some of our young cricketers lost one precious season. ‚Cricket has a strange fascination for those who play it, peace or no peace. So far from stopping cricket, many English cricketers have taken their bats to the battle front. Sir John Astley tells a pleasant story of the Battle of Alma in the last World War, which shows how ...

HOW MRC AND TCC VIED WITH EACH OTHER FOR THE TOP SPOT The first two decades of the league were dominated by two teams, Triplicane Cricket Club and Mylapore Recreation Club. The other strong combinations of the period were Sounder Cricket Club and Minerva CC, each winning the title twice, with Chepauk United Club and Madras Cricket Club bringing up the rear among the champions, with one success each. MCC was a late entrant into the league, but won the shield in the second year of its participation. This is how the balance of power shifted during the two decades: Year                                        Champion 1932-33                              ...

The first league championship of Madras was instituted by the Indian Cricket Federation or ICF.  It can be seen that MRC competed in the league from day one. The teams to participate in the first season were: Triplicane Cricket Club Madras Emmanuel Club Mylapore Recreation Club Minerva Cricket Club Chepauk United Club Madras Eastern Club Nowroji-Gokhale Union Mambalam Cricket Club Madras Aryan Club Progressive Union City Central League Mars Union Trades Staff Club Royapettah Students Club Perambur Recreation Club Corporation Sports Club Post and RMS Recreation Club B&C Mills Athletic Association. It can be seen from above that MRC and TCC were up and playing in the Madras league as early as 1932, but archival material from The Hindu (dated 13 April 1949) reveals that MRC came into being even earlier—in April 1924, and in fact, celebrated its silver jubilee on the 12 th of that month.  Here is the report. JUBILEE OF MYLAPORE RECREATION CLUB April ...

Indian companies had by the 1930s replaced the maharajas and maharajkumars as patrons of the game. In Bombay, for example, the Tatas had shown the way by supporting cricket for a long time, building a strong team and winning the popular Times of India Shield a record number of times. Soon several other companies followed suit, and businesses like ACC, Burmah Shell, Mahindras, Mafatlal, Century Rayon, Kohinoor Mills, Lakshmi Vishnu Mills, Nirlon, BEST, and the JK group, hired cricketers to build teams through the decades. The public sector was not to be left behind. The armed forces and the railways were perhaps the first to recruit cricketers – and other sportsmen – followed years later by the Indian Airlines and other PSUs like Bharat Petroleum. The state-owned banks like Reserve Bank of India and State Bank of India too started building cricket teams, and most of this drive began at Bombay, the commercial capital of the country. Some of the finest cricketers of India were employed by...

                                                            CHAPTER 1 The earliest patrons of cricket (and other modern sport) in India were the British army, with the soldiers eager to find a cure for homesickness in the games they pursued in the sun. In Madras, for instance, the Island Ground was the earliest home of cricket, dating from the late 18th century or the early 19th. Though initially inferior to the Englishman in the game, the native cricketer in time became skilful enough to beat him, especially in the annual Presidency Match (1915-1952) between Europeans and Indians in Madras, and the Triangular (which eventually grew into the Pentangular) in Bombay. In their efforts to popularise ...