Beyond the Boundary

How N Srinivasan became cricket’s biggest hitter

01 August 2014
STR / AFP / Getty Images
STR / AFP / Getty Images

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IT WAS 1993, and Sunil Gavaskar and Motganahalli Jaisimha were lounging in a hotel room in Chennai. Two of India’s sporting greats, they came from different generations, but their careers on the Indian cricket team had overlapped for precisely 11 frenetic days in Trinidad and Barbados in 1971, during India’s legendary series victory against a rampant West Indies side. Between Jaisimha’s time and Gavaskar’s, Indian cricket had steadied itself.

The torch had now passed to their successors, and they were free to sit in the groggy afternoon, reminiscing and laughing. With them in the room was a third man, a large but unobtrusive spectator who, from all available evidence, admired them unstintingly. Narayanaswami Srinivasan was 49 years old, and had loved cricket for a great many years. In time, he would come to see this love as a kind of patriotism, and everything he would do for cricket as a form of service to his country.

Rahul Bhatia  is a reporter. He has worked for The Caravan, Mint and ESPN Cricinfo

Keywords: Sharad Pawar broadcasting Lalit Modi Indian Premier League Jagmohan Dalmiya Board of Control for Cricket in India International Cricket Council N Srinivasan Tamil Nadu Cricket Association 2013 IPL spot-fixing case
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