Srinivasan was as upper caste as they come
Former Hyderabad cricketer V Ramnarayan pays tribute to the late Tamil Nadu batsman TE Srinivasan and tells of his mischievous, quick-witted side
Dustin Silgardo
25-Feb-2013
Former Hyderabad cricketer V Ramnarayan pays tribute to the late Tamil Nadu batsman TE Srinivasan and tells of his mischievous, quick-witted side. Michael Atherton's claim that Sunil Gavaskar said Srinivasan would have played more Tests had he not been from a lower caste is probably fictitious, Ramnarayan says in his blog Stumped, unless the upper caste Srinivasan managed to fool Gavaskar into believing he was from a lower caste with one of his crazy stories.
Greeting Ghulam [Ahmed, the then chairman of India's national selectors panel] at an airport, TE quickly realised that the veteran off-spinner, not unlike other selectors of the time, had not recognised him. “Good morning Sir,” he said, “I’m V Sivaramakrishnan sir, the opening batsman.” “Ah, Siva, good morning,” was Ghulam’s reply. Incredibly, he then asked TE, “How’s our friend TE Srinivasan?” giving him a glorious opening for one of his pranks.” TE’s reply was not only instantaneous but completely mad. “TE, sir? That rascal is up to no good sir, always drinking and getting into trouble.”
Also read Suresh Menon's tribute to Srinivasan on ESPNcricinfo
Dustin Silgardo is a former sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo