CHENNAI: The phrase ‘your reputation precedes you’ holds true for B Surya. Even before he had delivered a single ball for Lyca Kovai Kings in the Tamil Nadu Premier League (TNPL), the off-spinner had been the talk of the town. The 25-year-old is yet to play in Tamil Nadu Cricket Association’s top-flight First Division, but all it took was his stint with Royal Challengers Bangalore as a net bowler in the Indian Premier League for Surya to become cynosure of all eyes in the TNPL.
With another edition of the TNPL nearing its end, all things point out to Surya being the find of the season. Ten wickets from seven matches, fourth in the wicket-takers list, an economy rate of 5.76 and reputation of being a mystery spinner has already caught the attention of IPL scouts.
Right through the season, batters have been measured in terms of attacking him as his well-disguised carrom ball has been hard to pick. One reason why he hasn’t led the wicket-charts yet despite having all the skills has been the fact that batters are just content playing him out without taking risks.
****
For a player who is on the radar of the IPL teams, Surya has very much flown under in age-group and TN senior division. Born in a family with a humble background, cricket was the last thing on Surya’s mind. He took up the sport,only because it offered him an opportunity to mingle with his cousins and neighbours. Cricket purely was an accident, but he is used to witnessing highs through it.
He became a part of the Pallavaram Government School team because his new PE teacher formed a team and was short on numbers. Within six months, he was representing Kancheepuram district in the U-14s. And as his carrom balls started to fetch him a bucketful of wickets in Under-16 tournament, the big schools from Chennai with rich cricketing tradition, came calling. A move to Don Bosco School, an institution which has been a supply chain for Tamil Nadu cricket, followed soon, where he got full scholarship as long as he pursued playing cricket.
“Looking back, it feels like a lot of those events happened quickly. Those days I didn’t even get time to reflect and it was beyond my age too,” Surya says. “I was started off by bowling medium pace, but once I switched to off-spin, I thought a few variations were needed. Especially, in gully cricket and in tennis ball, spinners need to have some tricks. Which is how I picked up the carrom ball. And after playing regularly with the cricket ball, I practiced carrom ball – multiple variations of it – and Shanmugam sir and Balaji sir helped me with alignment and other stuff.”
****
The TamilNadu Cricket Association’s league system is amongst the strongest in the country.Every year, the First Division sees players from across India featuring in it,as backed by corporate houses, most of the teams offer good pay cheque to cricketers. These days even the lower division players get decent pay that many prefer playing in it rather than being part of the First Division team and warming the bench. Behind the scenes, it is where players usually form friendships and develop bonds that last forever. It is a league which has seen many players turn into Godfather for others. There are numerous heroes, who, well aware of their limited capabilities, do everything they can for a deserving talent to raise up the ranks.It is no different for Surya.
Born in a family of three, his father, a daily wage labourer, was the sole breadwinner. Playing cricket with shoes in itself was considered a luxury. Eating diet food, hitting the gym and taking treatment in case of injuries were off Surya’s limits. The lack of exposure to proper cricketing training meant, in each of his first three seasons at Aruna CC, Surya suffered two back (both stress fractures), knee (ACL) and shoulder injuries.
While Balasubramaniam, a physio, would help him recover without going under the knife, Surya needed to do something going forward and a training programme in a good gym was a non-negotiable. Enter Nirmal Kumar, a well-known cricketer in the Second Division, who plays for Aruna CC, a team that Surya joined in 2017 after spending his initial three seasons with Bharathi Sports Club (4th Div) and Spic.
“Nirmal Anna used to give a portion of his salary every month to me. It is what kept me afloat. And when I needed to take care of my fitness, he was the one who enrolled me in the gym and paid for it too. And after a point, he called me aside, gave me Rs 1 lakh and told me to invest in a business and with the revenue I got out of it, I had to take care of my cricketing expenses. I’ve not even heard of such characters in fantasies,” Surya says.
*****
Towards the end of 2019, with Surya’s performance continuing to be on the ascend, Nirmal took him to TS Mukund, a former First Division batter, who is also the father of India cricketer Abhinav. Mukund, is a renowned coach in Chennai,who has nurtured some fine talents.
“He saw my variations and he was the first one to say, ‘you are an IPL product’. I’ve always believed I could do big things, but until then I never had someone to groom my skill sets. And that is when I myself believed I could play top-level cricket,” says Surya.
While the onset of the pandemic deprived him of training sessions, Mukund would watch him bowl online. And as the situation improved, they would start high intensity training each day that would last for three hours. In the months that followed, Mukund, apart from fine-tuning Surya’s variations, would also ensure he doesn’t over-use them and still retain the tag of the off-spinner. The coach-player relationship has extended beyond the nets too. The 63-year-old Mukund pays Rs 15,000 a month to coach Surya.
“Vera level na avar (he is a superb person). He came to know about my humble background and said, he would pay every month Rs 15,000 and till this day he continues to do it. He went out of his way to help me and even today, if I look around, I won’t find another person who will do the same. Earlier, he used to coach only three-four players and after I joined, he included a couple more and whatever they pay him, he gives it to me. Peria manasu na avaruku (he is large hearted). He said don’t treat it like a help, but see it as someone paying to coach a special talent,”Surya says.
******
Soon after the2021 IPL, Royal Challengers Bangalore’s head of scouting, Malolan Rangarajan arrived at the nets to watch Surya bowl. “Abhinav na had sent him a few videos of mine and he wanted to see me bowl. He came down and suggested a few changes – to increase the speed, to turn a lot more, changing the angles and said some trajectories shouldn’t go above the eye-level. We worked on it and a few months before the 2022 IPL, he came to watch me again and asked me to expect a contract.”
The two month stint with RCB has already brought a few good additions to Surya’s life. Rubbing shoulders with the best has allowed Surya to know about, “Work ethics, food habits, how they prepare for the match and how to treat each opportunity the same. DK na (Dinesh Karthik) supported me a lot and thanks to Malolan, I got a TNPL contract as well,” he says.
Now, an IPL contract looks like only a matter of time.