Gopalan Trophy revival a reality at last

The last Gopalan Trophy tie was played at Colombo in January 1983. On the Sri Lankan side they were Duleep Mendis, Roy Dias, Asantha de Mel, Somachandra de Silva, Rumesh Ratnayake, Ravi Ratnayake and Ranjan Madugalle. The Tamil Nadu side included V Sivaramakrishnan, Bharath Reddy, S Vasudevan, Bharath Kumar, Abdul Jabbar and B Arun. During the drawn match in which Sri Lanka comfortably took the first innings lead, Mendis hit 189 to become the highest scorer in the Gopalan Trophy series. Topping the 700 run mark, he surpassed the previous record held by AG Kripal Singh (589).

Now after almost two decades, cricketers on both sides of the Palk Straits get a chance to play each other and rewrite the record books again. The revival of the popular annual fixture has been on the cards for some time and now thanks to efforts of officials from both sides and former Indian captain K Srikkanth, the revival has become a reality with a strong Tamil Nadu team, led by Robin Singh, all set to go to Sri Lanka for a short tour.

According to the schedule, the Tamil Nadu team will arrive in Colombo on September 21. They play three one day games on September 22, 23 and 25 before taking on the Colombo District Cricket Association for the Gopalan Trophy match which will be played from September 27 to 30.

The first Gopalan Trophy game was held in 1952-53 and the annual fixture, played alternately in Madras and Colombo, soon became very popular both with players and spectators. Except for a few years when it was not held, the game was a permanent fixture in the calender till 1982-83. Many memorable feats were performed in the games and the matches were generally well contested and the standard of cricket was high. The fact that the contests had an international flavour was a morale booster for players of both sides.

Towards the end of the 70s, the Gopalan Trophy game was not held for three successive years. There was a definite reason for this. By now Sri Lanka were bidding strongly to become a full member of the International Cricket Council. Not only were they playing unofficial `Tests' against India and other countries, they had also participated in the World Cup competitions in 1975 and 1979 and acquitted themselves creditably. The Sri Lankan authorities seemed rather chary in having contests with a state side, convinced that continuance of the Gopalan Trophy tie might be damaging to their chances of getting Test status. Two games were played in the earlier 80s but by this time Sri Lanka had become a full member of the ICC and had played their first Test matches and so it did not come as a surprise that the contests were discontinued.

With the special relationship between the South Indian state and the Emerald isle, hopes of a revival of the annual tie were never totally given up however. And in the last few years there were strident voices in cricket circles on both sides that the annual tie should be played again. Among those who made an effort to revive the Gopalan Trophy were prominent Sri Lankan cricket official Chandra Schaffter, former Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner in Tamil Nadu Suhit Gautamadasa, eminent Indian historian S Muthiah and the president of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association AC Muthiah. And playing a leading role in the parleys was Srikkanth.

All their efforts have borne fruit and in the Gopalan Trophy game, Tamil Nadu will take on the Colombo District Cricket Association team, which will include at least five members of the Sri Lankan side in all the games. One only hopes that the revival is here to stay.