Jolly Rovers in the new Millennium

The last 15 years or so have been arguably the most productive period of Jolly Rovers’ cricket campaign that started more than five decades ago. It started in 2000 with a bang, regaining the Palayampatti Shield for the 1999-2000 season after a gap of nine years.

Jolly Rovers was led by dynamic all-rounder D. Vasu who batted righthanded, guarding his wicket with his life, as it were, in a stoical, determined style, and bowled left-arm spin most of the time, though he was once a sharp, combative paceman. He took 54 wickets in the season, and off spinner S.R. Ganesh Kumar chipped in with 42. Pace bowler H. Ramkishen and batsmen Sujith Somasundar, J.R. Madanagopal and S. Ramesh were the other major contributors. That season, Chemplast sponsored two other teams, Alwarpet CC and Prasad CC in the league.

The team had a good mix of experience and youth in the first half of the decade. Abdul Jabbar (coach) and Bharath Reddy (Manager) formed the team management, while an array of talent was available to them in Vasu, Ramesh, Siddhartha Medappa, Somasundar, Tinu Yohanan, P.T. Subramaniam, Ganesh Kumar, M. Subramaniam, P. Muthupandian, T.R. Arasu, Ajay Kudua, C. Hemant Kumar, K.S. Shahabuddin and Ramkishen. Ramesh represented India in the 1999 World Cup in England, and Kudua was becoming the mainstay of the Kerala team in the Ranji Trophy. C. Hemant Kumar was a lefthand batsman of considerable promise and Medappa a fine batsman.

Soon, more future stars were spotted by the talent scouts at Sanmar, led by Bharath Reddy. Top order batsman S. Badrinath was to cover himself with distinction with his consistent deeds, a consistency matched in the bowling department by L. Balaji, the brilliant medium pacer. Balaji, Dinesh Mongia (captain), Jacob Martin and Y. Venugopala Rao toured South Africa with the India ‘A’ team.

Hemang Badani and Balaji of Jolly Rovers toured Pakistan with the Indian Test team in 2003. Balaji was one of the successes of the tour, with Pakistan President Musharraf reserving a word of praise for him when he met the team.

Jolly Rovers continued to win trophies galore during this period, with its first triumph in the Twenty 20 format coming in 2007 in a national level tournament in Kolkata. Rovers also won the VAP Memorial Trophy at Chennai. Its players continued to do well for themselves at the national level, with Dinesh Karthik making a promising start with a swashbuckling knock in a T20 match in South Africa. Opener M. Vijay, who continues to be Jolly Rovers’ pride, was among the runs at every level including first class. He and off spinner R. Ashwin made their Ranji Trophy season memorable with some sterling performances. Other Jolly Rovers players to perform well regularly were Vasanth Saravanan, R. Ram Kumar, Jesuraj, R. Sathish, S. Badrinath, Hemang Badani, Ajay Kudua and Tinu Yohanan.

Leg spinner Piyush Chawla joined the team towards the end of the decade, and has been one of its pillars ever since, with his consistent bowling and batting. By the time 2010 came round, Jolly Rovers had won the league title 15 times, with seven titles in the decade alone, and had contributed more than 25 players to the Indian team.

Medium pacer all-rounder R. Sathish has been another loyal Jolly Rovers stalwart. He captained the India team in the now defunct ICL, and came back after BCCI banned and later reinstated ICL players, to play with distinction for Mumbai Indians and other teams in the IPL. Ashwin, Vijay, Badrinath and other Jolly Rovers players went on to do well in the IPL. Sathish had a successful stint as Jolly Rovers captain, scoring 1245 runs one season, including successive scores 266 not out, 232 and 135. Ajay Kudua, by now a veteran, was in great form, too.

In April 2012, Jolly Rovers won the VAP Memorial Trophy a fifth time in the seven years of its existence. Piyush Chawla, who did the star turn in the final, was soon in the India T20 team for the World Cup.

In the 2012-13 season, Chemplast won the BCCI’s All-India Corporate Trophy by defeating India Cements in the final. Skipper C. Hemant Kumar, Napoleon Einstein, Nilesh Subramaniam, Anand Subramaniam, Piyush Chawla, M. Vijay, R. Sathish, M. Prabha and Prashanth Varma were the main contributors.

Happily for the team, its champion opening batsman M. Vijay continues to excel at the Test level, with several stand-out performances against England and Australia in the recent past.

The Jolly Rovers team has been rewarded for its excellent run with tours of England during the summer on more than one occasion during the last decade. These tours give the players a taste of overseas cricketing conditions as well as excellent grooming for their future as global citizens.

Jolly Rovers continues its winning ways, pursuing excellence with exemplary professionalism, thanks to nurturing of a performance culture by the top management team of N. Sankar, N. Kumar and Vijay Sankar, and the team management represented by Bharath Reddy, K. Ram Mohan Rao and Ajay Kudua. (Courtesy: Matrix house journal of the Sanmar group)

V. Ramnarayan

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