Nostalgia-- Again

Two events during the past week took me to my school days and the other one to my college days.. Those days were some of the memorable days that all will cherish .. you will never ever get them back .

I will cover the first one in this post and the second one will follow .

The First One :

Last Monday ( 17^th Aug ) The  Hindu Newspaper  had a small column that indicated Alfred Burrows , former cricketer had passed away in Perth Australia – It was a very small caption and since I read through all that gets in to  the Sports pages,  it did not miss my attention . I was shocked but at the same time surprised at this small little article . Burrows passing away was a bit of a shock but  he getting attention in the Sports Column was indeed a surprise. Burrows  was not one of those cricketers who  made it big –  his passing away getting recorded in the major newspaper may have been an apt tribute to a man who had it in him to scale heights as a Cricketer.

So who was Alfred Burrows and why did he take me back to my school days ?

My father worked for the Railways and so it was obvious that I rooted for the Southern Railway Cricket team in the first division league matches. Matches happened over the week end and so the favorite past time was to get to the  Railway Stadium at Perambur and spend the whole day watching cricket. I used to take the bicycle to the stadium. One thing I was nervous was about the safety of the cycle and so every fifteen minutes used to go to the parking lot from the seating area  and checking that the bicycle existed at the parking lot .  Bicycles used to be stolen regularly !

Burrows played for Southern Railways in the late 1970’s and most of the early part of the 80”s . He was talented , had the right temperament and was a graceful right handed  free stroke making batsman. He used to open the batting and would put the bowling to sword. He quickly got in to the Indian Railways team , played for Central Zone and top scored in the match against the ferocious pace attack of the mighty West Indies. But something went horribly wrong . I am not aware of the reasons but Burrows just played for a few years locally and became a Umpire and a Cricket coach. But on many an occasion , he played some outstanding knocks that we cherished watching him play. One of the biggest things that we cheered for  and wanted was -- the Railway team to beat the City sides ( Alwarpet , Jolly Rovers that boasted of the State players )  Burrows would mount the challenge on these teams but would never get support from all of his mates. It will be a big gathering  at the Stadium with all hoping for a Railway upset win . it never came but we did not miss a single game  to be at the Stadium to cheer the team and some of us just came to see Burrows bat and  also  some of the State players as well who played for other teams .

Some Snippets at the Ground :

We could get in and mingle with the players easily. No security or barracades etc

I do not recollect anyone requesting for autographs ( just did not exist ) Krish Srikkanth was a regular visitor when he played for  Free Lancers and later for  Alwarpet but he was not a India Cricketer then.

Dressing room was open and so we could hear all about the team strategy and in fact everyone around will give their piece of advice.  You could watch all the reactions of all players

Sometimes the batting order or which bowler to bowl would be determined by the Crowd

The batsmen will count their runs as well and keep cross checking with the scoreboard ( many days , I have done the task of keeping the score board ). If the score board did not reflect the score that the batsman had himself , there will be several exchanges from the field by the batsman to get his score reflected . So much focus , on personal scores and focus on the game.

For the captain of the Railway side ( I am not naming him ) , the score board will not display his score. The superstition was that if the score board reflected his score , he will get out ! And the whole crowd will be asked to keep quiet if he gets to fifty.. if you cheer him for getting to fifty , he will get out .

We had a vociferous Cheer leader – He will lead the noise rant  in between overs – Most of the opponent teams knew him and some captains will make the request to him not to intimidate their players . His tirade may at times turn up personal with some players..  Most of the crowd would seat around him .

The groundsman Govinda stayed with his family at the stadium on the West side and for him family included – cattle , Dogs , cats etc., Sometimes these could halt the matches in progress as they strayed on the field for greener pastures.  His mood determined as to how strong or loose the nails were put in on the matting wicket.  No  one could argue with him !

For being in the Railways  team , performance was not a criteria  Every year Railways will get in some new and solid recruits  but along with that they will have some “Officers “ who had to be in the team.

They will rarely get to bat  and will field only at First slip and minimum have to drop five catches. So all the good work done by the first four batsmen or by the two or three bowlers will be undone by these “officers”

We had an opening bowler ( again no names ) who opened the bowling for probably six or seven seasons bowling gentle off breaks.  He would and had to bowl the first five to six overs . No choice .Of course , he was in the team  for best known reason.

It was a familiar story that Railway team will get in the first division league and will get demoted to the second division the same year.

There were several talented heroes in the team that had great potential but just because they got stuck to the Railways due to Job Security they lost out on going several places.

Alfred Burrows was one of  them. The team had S Srinivasan ( my college mate—fast bowler ) ,Krishnakumar ( played for Kerala ) , Ram Mohan Rao ( Wicket keeper who could not get in to the Tamilnadu team since Bharath Reddy was the chosen one – Ram used to come on a  Lambretta  scooter  for the matches and all of us waited for him to come in ! ) and so on

The fun was being  at the ground and looking at things around you and spending the day  and enjoying all the moments that happen. This was the best week end activity with no costs involved

I recollected my school days week ends  from may be 7^th standard to 10^th on reading this mention of Alfred Burrows