Ranji Trophy throwback: When Tamil Nadu's golden team dominated domestic circuit in 1988

Tamil Nadu last won the Ranji Trophy in the 1987-88 season. Riding on the back of two brilliant centuries from Robin Singh (131) and Laxman Sivaramakrishnan (101), and 7-for from M Venkataramana and S Vasudevan in the first and second innings respectively, TN made easy work of Railways to seal an innings victory in the final. 

Off-spinner M Venkataramana picked up 35 wickets that season as Tamil Nadu went all the way in the premium domestic tournament. He picked up a crucial 7/94 in the first innings of the final.

Ever since, TN have not won the Ranji Trophy and the wait has continued for a long time now. They have come close on many occasions, by reaching the finals and semifinals quite a few times but glory has eluded them.

Although Tamil Nadu are now giants in the domestic white-ball circuit, their focus has never shifted away from the Ranji Trophy. As the new season of Ranji Trophy begins on February 10, let’s take a look at how things panned out when Tamil Nadu last won the Ranji Trophy.

Speaking exclusively to Republic Media Network, former India cricketer and current Tamil Nadu cricket team coach M Venkataramana relived memories from his playing days and the special season that saw them win the Ranji Trophy and the Irani Trophy.

When asked about the season and the final in particular, Venkataramana said, "We were scoring tall runs that season, with VB Chandrasekhar, WV Raman, PC Prakash, VS Ramakrishnan, Robin Singh were all raring to go and score big. There were a few tight games but we managed to pull ourselves and qualify for the knockouts. Once we got into the knockout games, we started scoring 450-500 runs easily."

"That gave me the freedom to attack and look for wickets. At the end of the season I picked up 35 wickets and in the final, even though the Railways batters were trying to hang in there, I kept picking up wickets on the first day. That put Railways back. Some brilliant close-in fielding helped us and we took some unbelievable catches during the season and in the final as well.

That game was a great start for my career. Skipper S Vasudevan handled me with care regarding where I should be bowling and it worked," recalled Venkataramana.

Tamil Nadu quite simply dominated the domestic circuit that season as they also won the Irani Trophy despite going on the backfoot against a star-studded Rest of India side that had the likes of Navjot Singh Sidhu, Arun Lal, Narendra Hirwani and Gopal Sharma etc.

TN were not a light side either. That was a team which had K Srikkanth leading them in the game, with former Team India bowling coach Bharat Arun, ex-India women's coach WV Raman, L Sivaramakrishnan, VB Chandrasekhar and Robin Singh (ex-India fielding coach) lining up.

The game was a roller-coaster, recalled Venkataramana. He revealed how K Srikkanth’s shrewd decision turned the game in TN’s favour after a first innings disaster.

"After winning the Ranji Trophy, the Irani Trophy was important," he said. 

"That was a Rest of India team that had Navjot Sidhu, Saba Karim, Gopal Sharma and a lot of established players. We lost the lead in the game and they didn’t enforce a follow-on. Kris Srikkanth was the captain of our team and he said ‘They (ROI) are doing a mistake. Let’s get them all out and chase the runs.’ And that’s exactly what happened."

"Srikkanth rolled his arm and picked up 3 wickets, and they were struggling at the end of Day 3 for around 100/6. On the last day, we had to get them out quickly and chase the runs and VB Chandrasekhar scored one of the fastest 100s in domestic cricket. He took the bowlers apart and we won the game. That capped off a great season for us and put us on the path to zonal team selection and eventually the national team," he added.

For Venkataramana, the performances culminated in him receiving his maiden national team call-up, where he featured against New Zealand in an ODI, picking up two wickets. The game is famous for Mohammed Azharuddin’s blitzkrieg 100 off just 62 balls.

Venkataramana then toured the West Indies and made his Test debut in the final match of the series. He says he was given a chance to play as one of the fast bowlers of the side could not take the field due to a stiff neck.

"Before the final Test match of the tour, one of our fast bowlers had a stiff neck and I was asked to play. That was the match where Viv Richards and Richie Richardson got big hundreds. We didn’t do well in the series," Venkatarmana revealed.

Tamil Nadu’s elusive efforts to win Ranji Trophy have continued ever since their win in 1988. As Tamil Nadu continue to hunt for their first Ranji Trophy title since 1988, it remains to be seen if the defending Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy champions can make history by winning the Ranji Trophy this year.