INDIAN BUSINESS ADOPTS CRICKET

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 these pioneers of sports promotion. Of these, the State Bank of India made perhaps the biggest, longest contribution, by recruiting cricketers across India. The inter-circle matches among the different administrative circles of the bank – like Bombay, Madras, Hyderabad, Delhi, Kanpur, and Calcutta (and later newer circles like Bangalore) – formed a major tournament, paving the way for the all India State Bank team, which also included players from the subsidiaries of the bank like State Bank of Hyderabad, State Bank of Saurashtra and State Bank of Bikaner & Jaipur. The SBI team that participated in national tournaments like the Moin-ud-Dowla Gold Cup often read like the Indian team. Ajit Wadekar or Hanumant Singh could for instance lead a side that included Gopal Bose, GR Viswanath, Syed Abid Ali, SMH Kirmani, Ambar Roy, BS Bedi, VV Kumar and Rajinder Goel.

Prominent for a brief while in the 1970s, was JK XI which comprised employees of the JK group owned by the Singhanias. Some of them were Test stars. In 1975-76, for instance, the side read somewhat as follows: MAK Pataudi, SA Durani, Surinder Amarnath, Mohinder Amarnath, Laxman Singh, Rajeshwar Vats, Abdul Hai, KD Ghavri, Ranjan Baindoor, RS Hans, and RK Raj, wicket keeper.

The ACC team in the early years had such giants as PR Umrigar, Bapu Nadkarni, Ramakant Desai and Vijay Bhosle. If that was the composition of the team that annexed the Buchi Babu trophy at Chennai in the 1970-71 season, it actually strengthened itself by hiring the latest batting sensation Sunil Gavaskar next season after the little opener returned triumphantly from the West Indies. Other corporate teams that took part in Buchi Babu included Mafatlal, Nirlon, and public sector banks.

In Chennai when it was Madras, Burmah Shell and M & SM Railway were among the pioneers of cricket promotion. The Police, Southern Railway, Integral Coach Factory, State Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank, Reserve Bank of India, Customs and Central Excise, the Madras Corporation, the AG’s Office, Best & Crompton, Indian Airlines, Esso, Philips and Lucas TVS were among the leading names in the first four or five decades, while India Cements, Chemplast, MRF, SPIC, and now Take Solutions, are some of the cricket promoters to have continued into the new millennium.

The advent of the Indian Premier League in 2008 changed the very idea and scale of cricket sponsorship and the rest of the world by spawning a virtually new genre of cricket and cricket spectator altogether. Business groups like Reliance – which owns Mumbai Indians – have created an unprecedented model of league-based cricket comparable to European soccer and a new animal: the freelance cricketer.

The Madras Cricket Association (MCA) was formed in 1930, with three members: MUC representing Indian clubs, the Anglo-Indian Sports Club, and the Madras Cricket Club, the Europeans. Sir Daniel Richmond of MCC was the first President of the MCA, while B. Subramaniam and M. “Bhat” Venkataramanjulu were Indian members of the Committee. The MCC President continued to head the MCA in independent India. MCA organised visits by Jack Ryder’s Australian XI in 1935 and the Douglas Jardine-led Marylebone Cricket Club in 1938.

Before Test cricket came to Madras, the Presidency Match between Europeans and Indians was its major cricket event. It was the brainchild of Buchi Babu, but he died before the first Presidency match was to be held in 1908. It was left to his trusted lieutenant B Subramaniam to organise the inaugural Pongal match, as it came to be known, held during the harvest festival in January every year. The first match was abandoned following torrential rain, and the competition resumed only in 1915. The annual match was played over three days and drew large crowds.

The Presidency Match was conducted by MUC and MCC together, and when gates were collected (for the first time in 1921), the two clubs shared the proceeds. When MUC and SIAA selected the Indian team without involving the other Indian clubs in the process, their action caused widespread dissatisfaction and led to the eventual formation, on April 10, 1932, of the Indian Cricket Federation (ICF), embracing 20 clubs. 

The representatives of these clubs assembled at Emmanuel Club and, at a meeting chaired by Prof. CK Krishnaswami Pillai, elected the following office bearers:

President: Dr.P. Subbaroyan; Secretary & Treasurer: T. Govindarajulu; and Asst Secretary: C.D. Parthasarathy.