It all began when a group of boys came together to play cricket on the streets near the ‘Murugan Kovil’ at South Fort here some five decades ago. Their favourite pastime soon grew into something serious and the Murugan Cricket Club was born in 1967.
Now, 47 years on, Murugan CC is one of the oldest cricket clubs in Kerala and is a connecting bridge to those good old days. Perhaps even more than what they do on the field, it is the values they stand by that makes the team different.
Money has poured into cricket in the last couple of decades and top teams in the state are those who can flex their financial muscle to acquire the best in the business. But for Murguan CC it is still all about creating their own players.
“We do not take players, we make them,” K R Pramod Kumar, vice-president of the club, endorses the team ideology. The team has never recruited players or made use of the services of guest players in its history. As a result, the players, staff and management of Murugan CC are all ‘homegrown’.
“Most of the players who have played for the club in the past are still associated with the club in one way or the other. That is one reason for our success and consistency,” says Pramod.
The club has appeared in the district A division league every year since 1978, except in 2010, when it was relegated to the B division. But the team showed fighting spirit to bounce back immediately and gained promotion the very next season. Apart from the first team, Murugan’s B team is currently active in the B division district league.
Three coaches, Babu Sreenivasan, Jayakrishnan and Vinod Vikraman - all BCCI level 1 coaches - train the players at Murugan CC. The team also conducts coaching camps for local talents, the latest of which is currently underway at its training base in Konchiravila near here.
The club also organises the Celestial Trophy, one of the three grade A cricket tournaments in the state, during January every year. The tournament, which began in 1995 as part of the club’s silver jubilee celebrations, completed its 19th edition this year.
“We are hoping to make it an all-India event in the 20th year, but the lack of grounds and sponsorship is a problem. The work is in progress on a turf wicket at our training centre,” says Pramod, who is also the treasurer of the Thiruvananthapuram district cricket association.
With upgraded facilities, the club that has produced players like university star R S Narayanan, under-22 south zone player Seetharaman and more recently Mohammed Shanu and Abhijith P, is hoping to produce another crop of exciting talents.