Cricketers in Chennai (Madras) and Sri Lanka (Ceylon) will not forget the tall commanding figure of V. Pattabhiraman alias ‘Pattu’, Bar-at-Law and a former vice president of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA). Not many know that Pattu was the first person to bring Chennai and Sri Lanka closer by naming a trophy after the great M.J. Gopalan.
The inaugural game was played in 1953. The initiative came as a boon to Sri Lankan and Chennai cricketers who were not exposed to international cricket then.
First class cricketers eagerly looked forward to the foreign tour that lasted about 10 days and included first class matches apart from the Gopalan Trophy.
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Invariably Pattu was the manager for Madras when it visited Ceylon and the manager for Ceylon when it visited Madras! He was venerated in Ceylon and highly respected in Chennai. Such was his popularity.
In those days Ceylon had quite a few internationals in F.C. de Saram, Ivers Gunasekara, M. Sathasivam, Sathy Coomaraswamy, S.S. Jayawickrama and Gamini Goonasena.
Not only did Pattu initiate the Gopalan Trophy match but also helped Ceylonese players like Clive Inman, Malcolm Francke and Stanley Jayasinghe get contracts with English county clubs, where they became extremely popular and regular performers.
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Enjoyable sojourn His management skills had no parallel and he wanted the players to enjoy the game and life too. The ‘Boat Mail’ would take the Madras team to Dhanushkodi where the players would have a bath in the sea before partaking a special lunch in the carriages. After a sumptuous meal, we would board the ferry S.S. Thalaimannar to our destination. The two-hour journey was most enjoyable.
We would board the express at 9 p.m. at Thalaimannar and were treated to Ceylonese beer and sumptuous dinner on the train. By this time we had developed plenty of friends. We would exchange Mysore silks, Nescafe, Nalli cotton sarees, pickles and Mysore sandalwood soap for Byford Socks, Horlicks, Milo, Ovaltine, perfumes and sports goods.
The matches were fought with extreme fierceness and Ceylon emerged the winner on quite a few occasions. The matches also unearthed great cricketers like Duleep Mendis, Michael Tissera, Roy Dias, Anura Tennekoon and Somachandra D’Silva. By the time Pattu passed away in 1986, Sri Lanka had built a solid international side.
Pattu’s efforts yielded visits by Ceylonese dignitaries and players as well as visits by TNCA officials and prominent industrialists to Ceylon. Both played perfect hosts which developed trade to a great extent.
This bonhomie still continues. The ‘sethu’ (bridge) that Pattu built was much stronger than the political ‘sethu’ that we are fighting for!
(V.V. Kumar is a leg-spinner who played for Madras and represented India in Tests)