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A keen follower of sports
– Partab Ramchand
Mr. Muthiah was a walking encyclopedia on various topics. People from many walks of life who came into contact with him were amazed at how he could discuss at length on just about anything. And as a professional sports writer for over half a century now I was absolutely flabbergasted as to how much he knew about my subject, cricket being particularly close to his heart.
After meeting him casually at a couple of literary functions I had my first serious interaction with Mr Muthiah at his house a little more than a decade ago. He wanted to know whether I could contribute a sports column for Madras Musings on a regular basis and of course I was happy to do so. Sometimes I would send in the piece on my own, at other times he would prompt me to write something topical since he followed sports closely and knew what or who was making news. He also encouraged me to write on senior sports journalists and over a period of time I wrote about P.N. Sundaresan, N.S. Ramaswami, J.C. Jacob and T. Govindrajan.
When at the request of prominent sports administrator Mr. N. Ramachandran he agreed to compile a book on sports in Tamil Nadu he asked me how I could contribute. I offered to write on cricket and tennis but he said that V. Ramnarayan was doing the chapter on cricket so it was just tennis for me. I introduced him to journalists who could help him out in writing on other sports. I am glad that my colleagues S.R. Suryanarayan and V. Venkatramana were of immense help in contributing articles on various sports.
During this time I interacted with Mr. Muthiah more often and found him meticulous in his approach. A stickler for discipline and detail he did not like copy that was haphazardly written and was quite blunt in his criticism. Being a historian he was particularly dogmatic about facts and figures and preferred copy with correct and straightforward prose and not padded with needlessly flowery language.
Mr Muthiah had been following cricket closely since his young days and his knowledge grew in abundance after he became a historian. I remember having a long discussion with him at his house some years ago on Madras cricket and why it continued to languish at the Ranji Trophy level despite the players enjoying the best of facilities and financial stability. I recall mentioning the name of C.P. Johnstone who had been a pillar of strength to Madras cricket in its formative years in the 30s and 40s and he told me that he had seen Johnstone in action pulling off a brilliant diving catch in the slips. That he could recall this after more than 60 years took me by surprise but then it was Mr. Muthiah with his razor sharp memory who was talking to me and I should not have been taken aback.
