He is known as the ‘Miracle Man’ of sand and grass. V. Ramesh’s feats are indeed path-breaking.
A national games medallist in 110m hurdles, surmounting barriers comes naturally to him.
An MBA, he runs two successful garment exporting firms in Tirupur, his passion for cricket runs deep.
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He has around 1000 people working under him but Ramesh credits one person for his successful foray into cricket.
Talking to Sportstar, Ramesh said, “My cricketing achievements have been made possible only because of my wife Malarvizhi Giri, a CA herself. She told me to chase my dreams.”
The pro-active Ramesh, on his 25 acres of land, started Tirupur School of Cricket (TSC), which includes a gym, a rehab centre, turf and matting grounds, and plenty of practice pitches apart from hostel facility.
The Tamil Nadu Ranji team practised in Chennai last season and was mighty impressed with the facilities.
Ramesh said, “There are 90 students and around half of them are provided free education. Jobs have been provided to some parents. Nine students are presently representing Tamil Nadu in various age categories.”
Current Tamil Nadu batter Pradosh Ranjan Paul comes from his academy.
Ramesh calls preparing pitches a science and says attending the BCCI course for curators in 2016 taught him surface dynamics.
Incredibly, Ramesh had not prepared a Ranji track when the BCCI invited him to make pitches for back-to-back Tests at Chepauk in 2021.
The pitch for the first Test had natural red soil so Ramesh used the hand roller predominantly and employed the mechanical roller occasionally.
He said, “The grass roots suck water and bring it to the top. That is why when you have live grass there is natural moisture in the pitch. So I left a lot of grass, which also holds the soil and provides seam movement.”
Even as the first Test was going on, Ramesh began work on the second wicket which had more clay content.
Again he employed more hand rollers. “I left plenty of grass. Clay is firm and you get more bounce,’’ he said.
Both the Tests produced results and a pleased Indian team gifted Ramesh a signed hat as a mark of appreciation.
On his phenomenal feat of conducting 32 TNPL games on four Chepauk pitches last year, he said, “The pitches were rolled properly, we maintained a proper moisture level and allowed the grass to grow.”
“In the final, 179 was chased successfully, which meant the pitch was still playing good,” he said.
Ramesh observed the red soil found in Mumbai offered more bounce and carry than its counterpart in Tamil Nadu.
He said, “The groundsmen in India who toil the hardest under the hot sun are poorly paid in a rich sport. They deserve much more.’’
He signed off saying,“I want to thank my Team TSC friends and the TNCA, for all their support.”
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