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EKLAVYA- Players who were good enough, but never played for India.

Tamil Nadu is the only team which has won Ranji, Deodhar, Irani, Syed Mushtaq Ali and Vijay Hazare trophy. But their last Ranji trophy triumph came in 1987-88. We expect the leader who made that happen to have a cult following at least in Tamil Nadu, but I never stumbled upon Santhanaraman Vasudevan's name in any of the cricket groups/discussions. I went through at least 10-20 Quora articles and came across his name. His wikipedia is six lines long.

S Vasudevan was born on 12 December 1955 in then Madras. He was an all rounder whose records weren't flattering. He was a slick left handed batsman who had a mean arm ball and silky hair. His silky hair was a rage back then. But his bowling and batting record which were in the early 20s never helped his cause, as his main competitor tuen was Ravi Shastri.

Self-effacing to the core, S. Vasudevan was a precocious talent. A wonderful left-arm spinner with guile, deception and a deadly arm-ball. A languid, capable bat with strokes and substance, he made runs when it mattered and Vasudevan was an effortless catcher in the slips.

When asked about the Ranji trophy victory, Vasudevan said- “We had a blend of experience and youth. We had youngsters such as M. Venkataramana, U. R. Radhakrishnan and M. Senthilnathan". He added- “We also had men who had played a fair amount of first-class cricket in V. Sivaramakrishnan, B. Arun, V. B. Chandrasekar, L. Sivaramakrishnan, Robin Singh, P. C. Prakash, D. Girish and myself. International cricketers like K. Srikkanth and W. V. Raman too featured in a few games".

Talking about his style of captaincy, Vasudevan said, “I was not a control freak. The players were given the freedom to express themselves. Every suggestion was welcome.”

Why has Tamil Nadu not been able to replicate the feat? Vasudevan explained: “We don’t play tournaments such as Buchi Babu and Moin-ud-dowla which would be ideal preparation for the Ranji season. Instead we go straight into the season from Twenty20 competition".

After hanging his boots, Vasudevan performed myriad roles, ranging from TNCA's chief selector to mentoring a school team.