The Lost Cricketer: It is the dream of any player to play for his country. That moment is the most precious of his life when he plays for his country. There are about 500 players in cricket who represented India. There are 4 of these players who played other sports for India apart from cricket. Kotar Ramaswamy was the first player to do so. Ramaswamy also participated in the Davis Cup tennis tournament before playing Test cricket for India. Unfortunately, the name of Kotar Ramaswamy is included in those cricketers whose death was mysterious or whom we keep in the list of The Lost Cricketer.
Life is a long list of coincidences. That’s why Kotar Ramaswamy was born in the year which is considered to be the most important year in modern sports history. Year 1896. This is the same year when the Modern Olympic Games took place for the first time. Kotar Ramaswamy was born on 16 June 1896 in Chennai. In 1985, Ramaswamy mysteriously disappeared from the house and did not return home again.
Ramaswamy played Davis Cup for India in the 1920s. Then a few years passed between tennis and cricket. Then came the year 1936. This year the Indian cricket team toured England. This was only the second tour when India had to play a Test match against any team. When the national selectors selected the team for this, surprisingly it had the name of a player who was 40 years old. His name was Kotar Ramaswamy.
Ramaswamy made his debut in the second Test match of this tour and played an important role in drawing India’s match. He played innings of 40 and 60 runs in his debut match in Manchester. Ramaswamy also performed well in his next Test match. He played unbeaten innings of 29 and 41 in this match played at The Oval. In this way, Ramaswamy scored an average of 56.66 in this tour, which was more than Colonel CK Naidu, Vijay Merchant, Mushtaq Ali included in this team.
Ramaswamy’s career as a player was of 2 Test matches. But this figure does not tell his full potential. This left-handed batsman is known for free flowing batting. He had the best performance in Ranji Trophy for many years. Before the Ranji Trophy, Ramaswamy played for the Hindus team in the quadrangular tournament in Bombay (Mumbai).
Ramaswamy’s second innings in cricket was as the team manager. He was the manager of the first Indian cricket team to tour the West Indies in 1953. He played the role of national selector in the 1950s itself. Remembering this player who made a great contribution to Indian sports, the eyes of sports lovers are filled with tears when they remember his last days. Wisden has placed Ramaswamy in the list of players with ‘Unknown Death’. According to Cricinfo, the family says that Ramaswamy never wants to be a burden on anyone. The Lost Cricketer Kotar Ramaswamy.
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Tags: Indian Cricketer, On This Day, The Lost Cricketer
FIRST PUBLISHED : June 16, 2023, 07:01 PM