Cricket 1898

“ Together joined in Cricket’s manly toil.”— Byron. no. 472 . v o i . x-vii. THURSDAY, MARCH 31, 1898. f b i c e aa. B. JAYARAM. To the average English cricketer who in the days of his childhood is CirefLilly coached in the rudiments of the game until he becomes more or less proficient, the difficulties experienced by Jayaram in his efforts to learn how to play can hardly be understood. As a “ Native ” in Madras Presidency he met with absolutely no encourage­ ment in his early boyhood when he began to watch the cricket played on the Banga­ lore Gymkhana ground, and there seemed no hope for him to ever excel in the game. At his school, the Central Col­ lege, Bangalore, it was a long time before he could persuade the other boys that cricket was altogether a superior game to rounders, which was regarded by them as an inspiriting amusement. Such things as cricket bats and cricket balls were not to be found in the college playground, but the coming cricketer induced a few companions to explore the outskirts of the game, as it were, by means of a ruler and racket ball. In the art of de­ fending his wicket with the ruler, Jayaram soon became an expert. Always on Thurs­ days he was to be found at the Gymkhana ground watch­ ing the Englishmen at their favourite game, and at fiat with the ruler and afterwards with a real bat he tried to imitate the style of the better known batsmen and their manner of making their strokes. Even when cricket proper was played at the School it required an enthu­ siast to appreciate it, for on a bard and very rough ground it was necessary to bat without pads and gloves against pretty fast bowling. Indeed, there was a fast bowler owning to the name of B. Seshagiri Rao, who looked about him in vain for new worlds to conquer, since Jayaram alone had pluck enough to face him unless he moderated his pace to such an extent that blows on the body and the face would be conspicuous by their absence. By degrees cricket became the chief game at the college. Matches were played with varying success until the fame of Jayaram began to spread through the district. For half-a-dc zen years he was captain of the School team, duriD g most of which time his men were almost invariably successful. A cup was pre­ sented by Mr. Justice Brandt and Sir Philip Hutchins to be played for by the various Madras schools, with the under­ standing that it might be won outright if a team were victorious for three suc­ cessive years. Jayaram stayed at his school long enough to enable it to retain the coveted cup as its own property, and then Colonel Pennycuick presented another cup which could not be won outright. During Jayaram’s time the College won the cup four times, viz., in 1889, 1893, 1894, 1895; and in those matches he played 13 innings (once not out) making 856 runs, an average of 47, and took sixty-five wickets for 346 runs, an average of 5 3. When Jayaram left the College in 1895 with the reputation of being about the best batsman in Southern India he entered the Geologi­ cal Department. Since that time he has been connected with Bangalore cricket with such success that his name is now a household word in India. Almost the firnt time that it was recognised outside his school that he was a batsman above the common run was when in 1888 f >r the Central College against the Bangalore Gymkhana, on the ground of the latter, he made 90, the biggest innings he had up till then played. In 1889 his chief innings were 77 and 59 in inter-college matches. In 1891 he for the first time made over a hundred, his score of 185 against the Yorkshire Regiment attract­ ing wide-spread attention. In 1893 his best score was 175 against Kolar, while he also played a couple of innings of over 80 in the cup competi­ tions. He played three innings of over a hundred in the fallowing year against very strong teams, and his two innings of 77 and 123 in the same match for Bangalore against Madras at Bangalore marked him out as a cricketer worthy to take his place among the best of the Englishmen. Steadily improving, he, at the end of last year, achieved a success which stamped him . as a distinctly fine cricketer, for in the two matches between Bangalore and Madras, he made 94 and 37 at Bangalore, and 132 at Madras, an innings described by good judges as almost perfect. To predict that Jayaram B. J AYARAM.