At a time when most state units are using the pre-season to host domestic T20 tournaments, the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA) has also found space for four-day cricket games with the return of the All-India Buchi Babu Invitational Tournament after a gap of six years. Tamil Nadu’s poor show in the Ranji Trophy is also a reason for the tournament being played in the four-day format for the first time.
The tournament is now bigger in terms of the number of teams and the window. Usually played by 8 teams, the upcoming edition will be played from August 15-September 11 and will feature 12 teams. The tournament’s playing conditions will be similar to the Ranji Trophy’s.
The decision to increase the number of teams followed requests from other state units. With monsoons prevailing in the north, nine of the 12 teams are from the region, with Kerala being the lone visiting side from the south, apart from the two teams that TNCA is fielding.
With TNPL already out of the way, the TNCA has allotted a 28-day window – the longest ever for the tournament and is spending Rs 2.5 crore for the event. Winning team will get Rs three lakh and the runners up Rs two lakh. The 12 teams have been divided into four groups and the toppers will make the semifinals.
“I am happy TNCA is reviving Buchi Babu. It is the stepping stone into big league cricket. The revival of Buchi Babu is important for the revival of First Class cricket. Parents want their kids to only play in the IPL. So I am happy that TNCA is reviving it as a four-day format,” former India captain Kris Srikkanth said at the launch event.
After the 2016-17 season, with the arrival of the Tamil Nadu Premier League, the tournament failed to get a window for six years.
TNCA secretary RI Palani said that there was plenty of interest from state units and even had to turn down a request from MS Dhoni to include Jharkhand in the draw. “MS Dhoni wanted us to include Jharkhand, but it was too tight. We already have 12 teams, hence we couldn’t accommodate them. Even Chhattisgarh and Services wanted to take part. Since teams use the event to prepare for the pre-season, we have chosen to host the tournament in Coimbatore, Salem, Dindigul and Tirunelveli on green-tops as it will give players a good preparation” Palani said.
Named after the man who is considered the Father of Madras cricket, the start of Buchi Babu signalled the start of the domestic season in India.
The Buchi Babu tournament is older than the Ranji Trophy. More than a century old, it was first held in the 1909-10 season a year after Mothavarapu Venkata Mahipathi Naidu, commonly known as Buchi Babu, passed away in 1908.
A tournament, held in the memory of their father was conducted by his three sons M Balaiah Naidu, C Ramaswami – former India players – and Venkataramanujulu, featured only local teams for nearly 50 years. In the 1960s it turned into an all-India invitational. And from there the tournament’s profile only increased. It was through the Buchi Babu tournament that fans in Chennai, then Madras, first saw Sunil Gavaskar playing in 1971. Gavaskar turned out for Associated Cement Company, just a few months after he announced his arrival in the Caribbean.
As Gavaskar mentions in his book Sunny Days, he arrived at the railway station with around 8,000-9000 people waiting for him. And when he strode out to bat, police had to escort him to the crease to fend off invading fans.
“I had never seen so many people at a college ground – at Chepauk maybe, but never at a college. I had to be escorted by the police to the wicket, which I don’t think has happened anywhere before. Still, the people would surge onto the field during the drinks interval. I will never, never forget that day and that crowd,” Gavaskar wrote. The tale doesn’t end there. Early in the innings, he survived a close LBW shout that was so plumb that Gavaskar even asked the umpire why he didn’t rule him out. “I asked the umpire, ‘What was wrong with that? It was going on to hit the stumps’, to which the umpire replied, ‘If I had given him out, I won’t be allowed to go home’.” Gavaskar who made 75 wrote.
Srikkanth said that was the first time he watched the legendary opener, who he got to open with later on for India. “I was a seventh standard boy and watched him play,” Srikkanth said.
In the late 70s the Buchi Babu was sandwiched between the Safi Darashah and Moin-ud-Dowlah tournaments making the three events the curtain raiser. If Gavaskar played in the tournament after his famous 1971 tour, a decade later, fast bowler Karsan Ghavri would feature in the tournament after his stupendous show Down Under, where he was part of the side that won the Melbourne Test.
“Buchi Babu was the curtain raiser for the domestic season. We had the likes of Gavaskar, GR Viswanath, Roger Binny, Ravi Shastri, Sandeep Patil, Syed Kirmani feature regularly. SBI team, ACC, Nirlon all fielded strong teams. We wanted to do well against these teams and it was a great learning curve and exposure for us. If you do well in this tournament, you straight away get recognised at an All India Level. It was the biggest non-first class tournament in India. And each year the Bombay boys would come and win the tournament and go,” Srikkanth added.
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