CHENNAI: Three-time IPL champion
Chennai Super Kings on Tuesday honoured four former Tamil Nadu cricketers and noted curator K Parthasarathy for their contributions to the game.
CSK contributed an amount of Rs seven lakh to the five who were associated with Tamil Nadu cricket in the past.
Former
BCCI and
TNCA
President
N Srinivasan
handed over cheques to the beneficiaries at a function here on Tuesday in the presence of TNCA secretary RS Ramaswamy.
The four players -
KR Rajagopal
,
Najam Hussain
,
SVS Mani
and
R Prabhakar
- had played for the state at various periods of time, a press release said.
Parthasarathy was a popular curator of MA Chidambaram stadium here from 1973 till his retirement in 2013. He has curated matches in all formats including three World Cup matches, 4 Women's World Cup matches, India 'A' series games and was also associated with the tied Test in 1986.
The
Tamil Nadu Cricket Association
had in recognition and appreciation of the immense contribution towards the game had instituted a one-time payment of Rs five lakh to cricketers, groundsmen, match officials and others who helped build our sport.
Welcoming this initiative, CSK whose home base is Chennai, came forward to show its love and respect to these veterans and will be contributing Rs seven lakh each to some of the veteran cricketers – the number synonymous with the much-loved captain MS Dhoni (who wears the No.7 jersey).
Rajagopal, batsman-wicket keeper who played for Tamil Nadu, was a prolific scorer and was distinctly unlucky to miss out on a spot in Indian team's tour to Australia in 1967 while Najam Hussain was an all-rounder who played for erstwhile Mysore, Madras.
Mani played for Tamil Nadu and South Zone alongside legends such as VV Kumar, S Venkataraghavan, AG Milkha Singh, ML Jaisimha, EAS Prasanna and AG Kripal Singh and was in the reserves of the Indian Test team and Prabhakar was a medium-pacer who played Ranji Trophy for the state.