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C. Ramaswami was one of the rare sportspersons who represented the country in more than one sport. A trip through history
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Remembering C. Ramaswami: he excelled in cricket and tennis
RESIDENTS OF Chennai need not have to refer to C. B. Fry while reminiscing about sportsmen who have represented their country in more than one sport — we have home-grown double internationals in C. Ramaswami and M. J. Gopalan, the first south Indians to represent India in cricket on the 1936 Test tour of England.
Ramaswami also played tennis for India, while Gopalan represented the country in hockey.
In 1988, the Wisden Almanac, in its list of `Births and Deaths of Cricketers' had a rather strange entry. It read: `C. Ramaswami born 16 June 1896, presumed dead.' This was the Cricket Bible's way of representing the event of October 15, 1985, when Ramaswami walked out of his Adyar home, never to be traced again. In 1992, the Almanac dropped the `presumed dead' entry in the listing on Ramaswami.
Early life
There is no lack of documentation, though, about Ramaswami's birth and life. He was born in the sprawling Luz House, a mansion in Mylapore, as the third son of Buchi Babu Nayudu, who is called the `Father of Madras Cricket' for preparing the ground for the Presidency cricket matches between Europeans and Indians during Pongal — a tradition that started in 1916 and continued till 1952 — by his insistence in the early 1900s that Indian players of his Madras United Club would enter the Europeans-only MCC pavilion and clubhouse. Luz House had two tennis courts, one of which doubled as a cricket pitch, and this was the nursery where Ramaswami learnt his basics in cricket and tennis. His brothers, Venkataramanujulu or Bhatt and Baliah, too learnt their cricket in the mansion and the three brothers played for the Presidency and also captained Madras in the Ranji Trophy.
In 1919, Ramaswami left for Cambridge, where he studied agriculture at Pembroke College. He reached Cambridge during the winter, which made him gravitate towards tennis. He impressed everybody by his brand of power tennis, and was selected in the elite Combined Universities (Oxford and Cambridge) team in their 1923 tour of the U.S. to play against the combined Harvard-Yale team.
In 1922, Ramaswami represented India in the Davis Cup in England. After a good performance in the first round against Romania, India played Spain in the second round. Though India lost, Ramaswami and his doubles partner Dr. A. H. Fyzee defeated the Spanish pair of Comte de Gomar and Flaquer, the Wimbledon finalists of that year.
Ramaswami also had a couple of famous tennis triumphs in England. In his final year at college, he bunked class to win the South of England Championships at Eastbourne, a tournament that he entered under the name A. Rabbit to avoid being caught by college authorities. He defeated England Davis Cup player Sir Gordon Lowe in the final and is the only Indian player to win the tournament. He also won the doubles title of the prestigious Queen's Club tournament in 1923 partnering Oxford's Kingsley. After returning to India in 1924, Ramaswami worked as the Assistant Director of Agriculture. In the sporting sphere, he switched back to cricket, churning out brilliant performances in the Presidency matches and the Ranji Trophy.
Ramaswami's solid knock of 60 for Madras against the visiting squad from England led by Arthur Gilligan in 1927 emphasised his international credentials. He hammered 83 against Jack Ryder's visiting team from Australia in 1936, a match in which Madras almost defeated the Aussies thanks to Gopalan's magnificent bowling.
Factionalism and intrigues
These performances ensured Ramaswami's selection for the 1936 England tour, which is notorious in the annals of Indian cricket for its factionalism, intrigues and controversies. At the age of 41, Ramaswami made his Test debut, and with scores of 40 and 60 at Old Trafford and 29 and 41 not out at The Oval he stood second in the Indian batting averages with 56.67. Ramaswami was the manager of the Vijay Hazare-led Indian team that toured the West Indies in 1952-53. The team, which included Vinoo Mankad, Polly Umrigar, Dattu Phadkar, Vijay Manjrekar, Pankaj Roy and Subhash Gupte, was written off even before the tour as being too weak to offer any resistance to the mighty West Indies team comprising the three Ws (Worrell, Walcott and Weekes), Sonny Ramadhin and Alf Valentine.
Stung by the pessimism of the Indian public, even board officials, Ramaswami and Hazare motivated the side to hold the West Indies to four draws in the five Tests with the West Indies narrowly winning the Barbados Test. After the West Indies tour, Ramaswami served as a national selector for eight years before resigning in protest at the rampant factionalism in the Board. In 1960, he retired from the public sphere to follow sport from the sidelines. And, he saw a nephew, Suryanarayanan, play for India in cricket, and another nephew, Bobjee, represent the country in tennis. Perhaps, the best recognition of such a versatile sportsman would be in naming a stand at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium and the SDAT Tennis Complex, Nungambakkam, after him. Are the officials of the Tamil Nadu cricket and tennis associations listening?
M. SRINATH NARAYAN
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