Buchi Babu Cricket Tournament 2024 - some history !!

Way back in July 25, 1936 at Manchester debuted Cotar Ramaswami and scored 100 runs (40 & 60).  He played only 2 tests,  He had played in the Davis Cup in 1920s.

 

A few decades ago – We relished following Test Matches, One dayers, Duleep trophy, Deodhar trophy, Ranji matches; MJ Gopalan trophy, Hindu trophy  and .. .. annual Buchi Babu tournament  – remember that in our school days have seen so many matches of Buchibabu  tournament (generally during Avani Avittam) – in mid 1970s and early 1980s, the matches were played in Chepauk, Marina and University Union.  They were  3 day matches – and teams like SBI, Mafatlal (later Nirlans), Karnataka, Hyderabad played (some point of team there was team from New Zealand too)....... 

I remember seeing Krish Srikkanth hoisting Hoshidhar Contractor for a straight six – on another day closer to lunch, after a beautiful cover drive and one straight down, Cheeka pulling Sandhu in the hands of a lone fielder ........ and we all parting the ground sadly.  Apart from TN stars S. Venkatraghavan, VV Kumar,  Dalvi, Belliappa, TE Srinivasan, Kalyanasundaram, Mukund, Bharat Reddy, R Vasudevan, Arunkumar, Bharatkumar, Cheeka, VB Chandrasekhar, V Sivaramakrishnan, CS Suraishkumar, B Arun, WV Raman - some names that readily come to mind are : Parthasarathi Sharma, Brijesh Patel, Kirmani, Rajinder Hans, Eknath Solkar, Ashok Mankad, Jyoti Prasad, Ramnarayan, K Jayanthilal, Shivlal Yadav, Dhiraj Parsanna, Sandhu, Ghavri .... and more. Those days it was dominated by teams from Bombay and Ashok Mankad was hailed a shrewd leader bringing in youngsters, who went on to become popular later (Lalchand Rajput, Hattangadi, Jignesh Sanghani, Contractor ....)

 

The Buchi Babu memorial tournament began in 1909–10, a year after Babu's death, and it was conceived as a tournament between local sides. Its profile got a big lift in the late 1960s when it was converted to an invitational tournament, with outstation stars coming in and the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association taking control of its organisation. The Buchi Babu Invitational Cricket Tournament 2024  is set to begin in Tamil Nadu on Thursday (August 15). India's T20 team captain Suryakumar Yadav will be participating in the league.    After a lull and a gap of 6 years, the tournament was revived in 2023.  Madhya Pradesh are the reigning champions of the Buchi Babu Cricket Tournament after they  defeated Delhi by a massive 250 runs in the 2023 final in Sept.   

This year, Buchi Babu Invitational Cricket Tournament will feature 10 teams: defending champions Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Railways, Gujarat, Mumbai, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Chhattisgarh, Hyderabad, and Baroda, along with two local teams, TNCA President's XI and TNCA XI. The tournament will follow the four-day format used in the Ranji Trophy. The winning team will receive a prize of Rs 3 lakh, while the runner-up will get Rs 2 lakh. The final of the tournament is scheduled to be played from September 8 to 11. The tournament will be held across four locations in Tamil Nadu: Tirunelveli, Coimbatore, Salem, and Natham.   

Ishan Kishan will lead Jharkhand in Buchibabu;  Kishan, who was not part of Jharkhand's original long list, will link up with the squad in Chennai on Wednesday. The move is seen as the first step towards the wicketkeeper-batter's full-fledged return to first-class cricket.  A return to the Ranji Trophy fold is also expected during the 2024-25 season, after Kishan informed the state selectors of his desire to return. His last domestic first-class game was in Dec 2022. He stayed away from the Ranji Trophy towards the end of the 2023-24 domestic season, and this proved costly for him, with the BCCI removing him from the central contracts list for not prioritising domestic cricket.  The second Test of that Caribbean tour, in July 2023, remains Kishan's last first-class game. He was picked in the Test squad for the 2023-24 South Africa tour too, but he asked to be released citing mental fatigue.   

Mothavarapu Venkata Mahipathi Naidu, popularly known as Buchi Babu Naidu (1868–1908), was an Indian cricket pioneer in the colonial era who organised cricket clubs for native Indians.  He founded the annual Madras Presidency Matches, the first of which was held shortly after his death. The annual Buchi Babu Tournament is held in his honour. Buchi Babu's three sons – Venkataramanujulu (Bhatt), M. Baliah Naidu and Cotah Ramaswami all played in the early Presidency matches.

 
With regards – S Sampathkumar
12.8.2024.