Dreams are something that doesn’t allow you to sleep. It is certainly not easy to follow one. It takes sacrifices… okay, let’s cut that crap.
India is a cricket crazy country, and Tamil Nadu is just way too big when it comes to the love for the sport. You can find people picking up their bat in every nook and corner of the place. Most of us does dream about taking up the game as a profession at some point, but unfortunately, not everyone has that privilege. In fact, people do give up (or forced to) to take up other careers for living. It doesn’t come that easy. Also, Lucky are those who make a living out of something that is remotely related to their passion.
Santhamoorthy is one of them. He was 15 when he began to take cricket seriously, and 25 years later, he is still playing and is still giving his all to the game and is still winning hearts with his bowling. When you see Santhamoorthy, you just cannot say that he is 41.
At 41, you are supposed to be “matured”, but Santhamoorthy just doesn’t care. He still goes for matches where the players are literally half his age. People do bully him for the same and make fun of his age. Still, he doesn’t care. He is all-in when it comes to the game. You can see him shout, jump whenever he picks up wickets and is super active in the field too. The team, unfortunately, can have only eleven players and Tamil Nadu is just too big.
Thankfully, the expansion of Ranji Trophy helped more people to play the domestic cricket, the Ranji Trophy among others. Players from lesser-known places, say, Puducherry, Uttarakhand are having a good run and are enjoying their little bit of recognization now.
Santhamoorthy had to wait for almost 25 years to get his first big break. After being a part of many clubs, including Swaraj CC and TNPL’s Karaikudi Kaalai, the big opportunity came in 2019, Vijay Hazare Trophy. He went on to bowl four overs and returned wicketless but was economical. It wasn’t all it. He then went on to play his first T20 match in Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and this time, he had a wicket. What followed was Ranji Trophy debut in 2020.
His debut came in Puducherry’s final Ranji Trophy outing in 2020, against Nagaland. While his debut itself a big thing considering he was over 40, he did make full use of it. He returned with two wickets in the first innings and in the second innings, lesser did he knew what was going to happen.
19.1 overs later, he went on to pick five wickets while giving away 79 runs. Nobody knew it was a record until his friend pointed it out after a bit of research. WORLD RECORD.
Santhamoorthy, at 41 years and 129 days, became the oldest player to pick up a five-wicket haul on debut in men’s First-Class Cricket. He broke Fred Wright’s record which was created in 1895. Wright took 5 for 78 for Leicestershire against Derbyshire when he was 40 years and 49 days.
While Santhamoorthy’s world record went unnoticed, it did catch the eyes of fellow cricketers, and one of them was Vinay Kumar.
Santhamoorthy, at 40, has played the game most of his life but he is still learning and is ready to take up suggestions from people who are younger than him. At times, validation is important too. For Santhamoorthy, Vinay Kumar’s appreciation helped him out. His motivation, in a way, kept him going.
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2020 was a terrible year because of the pandemic. Cricket was undoubtedly unthinkable. Now that the domestic cricket is back, Santhamoorthy is back too.
Santhamoorthy finally got to play his 2nd T20 today. This match was different. Different in terms of the team he was facing. While Mumbai is down and out in his competition, nobody can ignore the fact that the team has one of the strongest batting line-ups. From Suryakumar Yadav to Shivam Dube, the batting order is strong. Santhamoorthy, however, made it look all easy.
The first delivery was to Tare, and the latter wasn’t expecting. He did pitch up the ball but it was a bit close to go for a cut. Tare still went for it, edged it to the keeper. A happy Santhamoorthy ran towards his teammate with joy. It was unreal. However, Suryakumar Yadav brought him back to reality by slapping eight runs from his next four deliveries. It was hurtful and it was Santhamoorthy’s day.
In the last delivery of his first over, he once again pitched it up but this time, the ball was doing something. It swung and moved a bit away from Suryakumar who extended his body to defend the delivery. The ball kissed the edge and flew to the keeper. Suryakumar wasn’t even looking but walked back immediately. At the other end, you could see Santhamoorthy, jumping in joy like a child. It meant so much to him.
In his 2nd over, two deliveries later, Santhamoorthy pitched up once again and this team the ball was coming into Siddhesh Lad who was trying to run the ball through the covers. The ball was faster and closer than he had thought, catching the edge once again. A brilliant catch by Sheldon Jackson gave him his third wicket. This time, Santhamoorthy was calmer but his teammates weren’t. They were hugging and jumping on him.
Mumbai were reduced to 39 for 4. They needed something from Jaiswal who looked fine for his 15. He was playing shots but was careful enough to keep his wicket safe. Here, Santhamoorthy was a bit lucky. Jaiswal saw a delivery that up and out. He went for it but unfortunately, found the short third man.
He then came back for his third over and in the 4th delivery of the over, Santhamoorthy bowled according to his fielding set-up. He came up with a short delivery on to the legside for Nayak, who tried to pull the ball but got himself to an awkward position. He ended up playing into the hands of Deep Fine Leg. Once again, the joyful Santhamoorthy ran towards Sheldon Jackson with pride. Undoubtedly, one of the best you’d see.
He ended up with four overs, 15 dot balls, FIVE wickets. This, once again, is a record. When he began his career, T20 wasn’t as famous as it is now. Look where he is now.
After all this, Santhamoorthy might go back to the bench for the team’s last match and one might not know when he will be playing again but for Santhamoorthy, he is grateful for what he had achieved so far and considers bowling at the Wankhede Stadium is one of his best memories.
Now, he will go back to be the coach, the MTS (Multitasking Staff) at Government Law College in Puducherry and of course, will go back to his tiny sports shop and will move on with life with hopes of getting back into the team once again. He is almost 42 now and believes that he still has a few good years left in him. Oh, the things the people do for their passion. It’s beautiful, isn’t it?
Picture courtesy: Screengrab from BCCI Video
