Lights, Camera, Pooja Cricket!

World’s first limited overs tournament steps into its platinum jubilee with pink balls, floodlights and a legacy intactAmong the countless portraits of cricketing legends lining the walls of the Tripunithura Cricket Club, there is one that commands your immediate attention. It captures an elderly gentleman in motion: one knee bent like a Kathakali dancer mid-step; eyes locked on an invisible off stump; the bowling arm slicing through the air, thick with anticipation.In the sepia-tinted archives of Kerala’s cricketing lore, one name echoes through the temple courtyards and dusty maidans: KV Kelappan Thampuran.Thampuran was blue-blooded royalty, hailing from the princely family of Cochin.

But cricket was in his blood like the red corpuscle. He may have played just one Ranji Trophy game, but his passion was unmatched. He was also a visionary. In an era when five-day matches reigned supreme and limited-overs cricket was an alien concept, he dared to go where no man had ever gone before. In 1951, he conceived a 50-over tournament, heralding the onset of the Pooja Cricket Tournament, the world’s first crack at limited-overs cricket, though unofficial.

Nobody knows for certain what inspired this bold move, but Thampuran’s younger daughter Padmaja offers a plausible explanation.“Back in the day, there used to be several three-day games in and around Kochi, which rarely produced any results. Frustrated at these stalemates, I guess my father decided to condense the game into a single day,” she tells TOI.With time, it turned into a revolution wrapped in white flannels.

Named after the Navratri season during which it was held, the tournament blended Kerala’s festive spirit with the crackle of the willow.Thampuran passed away in 1996, but the Pooja Cricket tournament has had an uninterrupted run since its inception. Even the pandemic could not cut it down to size. This year, the tournament turns 75. Naturally, the organizers are leaving no stone unturned to make it a gala affair, one that the Thampuran would be proud of.The tournament will kick off on Sept 15 with an exhibition match featuring some of Kerala’s former Ranji Trophy players, including S Ramesh, S Santosh, and Sunil Kumar.The grand finale is scheduled for Oct 18, and for the first time, it will be played under lights.“We’ve installed floodlights for this edition. All matches from Oct 1 will be played under lights,” said Santosh Sleeba, president of the Tripunithura Cricket Club.A total of 26 teams — 18 from Kerala and 8 from Tamil Nadu, Bengaluru, and other parts of the country — will compete for the top honours in this league-cum-knockout format featuring 45 overs per side.There’s another first. “We have decided to use pink balls for all the matches. With players donning the white flannels, it will give a retro look,” Sleeba explains.“As part of the 75-year celebrations, we have decided to introduce a women’s cricket league, a veterans’ tournament and a junior U-16 and U-19 tourneys after the Pooja Cricket Tournament ends next month,” chief curator Haridas notes.The organizers are hoping the weather gods won’t wash out their platinum jubilee celebrations.During Thampuran’s time, too, a game of cricket was not divorced from the divine. Padmaja goes down memory lane and fishes out an anecdote about her father.“Every year, before the start of the tournament, my father would offer prayers at the temple to appease the rain gods,” she recollects.It would be a recurrent sight, Thampuran standing in front of the gods, with his palms pressed together.

Sometimes his prayers worked, sometimes it didn’t. But he didn’t fret. Thampuran believed gods had their own scoreboards.Perhaps the biggest legacy of this tournament was how it turned into a nursery for upcoming talent. “The Pooja Cricket Tournament has given us so many Ranji Trophy players. This has made it a significant cultural touchpoint,” says P Jayaraj, former Kerala Ranji Trophy cricketer.Going forward, Sleeba is hopeful of bringing either Kapil Dev or his 1983 World Cup-winning teammate Syed Kirmani as the chief guest on the first day of the tournament.“Fingers crossed,” he adds. The mention of Dev and Kirmani brings back fond memories of the 1983 World Cup final for Hema Malini, Thampuran’s eldest daughter.“My father was so nervous that he turned off the transistor and went to the Tripunithura railway station and sat on the wooden bench as India took on the might of Clive Lloyd’s men. Later, after India won the game, he returned home joyous,” she reminisces.Today, the Pooja Cricket Tournament stands as a testament to how a game of cricket blurred caste and class lines in Kerala.As the marquee tournament enters its 75th year, the spirit and legacy of KV Kelappan Thampuran continues to flicker: Unfading and undiminished.