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| Full name | Morapakkam Josyam Gopalan | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1909-06-06)6 June 1909 Chennai,Madras Presidency,British India | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 21 December 2003(2003-12-21) (aged 94) Chennai,Tamil Nadu, India | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Batting | Right-handed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bowling | Right-arm fast medium | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| International information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Only Test (cap 18) | 5 January 1934 v England | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Career statistics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Source:ESPNcricinfo,20 May 2020 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Morappakam Josyam Gopalanpronunciationⓘ (6 June 1909 – 21 December 2003) was an Indian sportsman who represented India incricket[1] andhockey.
Gopalan hailed from the village of Morappakam inChingleput district, some 50 kilometres from Chennai. His family moved toTriplicane in Chennai when he was young. Gopalan was discovered byC. P. Johnstone, one of the founding fathers of Madras cricket. As was his practice with promising players, Johnstone gave him a job in theBurmah Shell. Gopalan soon switched his allegiance to the Triplicane Cricket Club. He owed his fame in local circles mainly to his performances here.[citation needed]
He was a fast medium bowler who moved the ball both ways. When he was selected to make his first class debut in theMadras Presidency tournament, it was not a popular decision. The crowd barracked him when he did not take a wicket till lunch on the first day, but he went on to take five wickets in each innings. He also impressed againstArthur Gilligan'sMCC team which was touring India at the time.[citation needed]
Another performance of some significance were the two matches in 1930 for Madras against theVizianagram XI which includedJack Hobbs. In the first, Gopalan dismissed Hobbs in both innings; in the second he clean bowled the great man with a leg-cutter that pitched on the leg stump and took the off bail. AgainstCeylon in 1933, he took a famous hattrick, the first inChepauk. This came in his eighth over when he took wickets with his first, third, fourth and fifth balls, hitting the middle stump each time.[2]
WhenRanji Trophy was inaugurated in 1934, Madras and Mysore (nowTamil Nadu andKarnataka) played the first match. To Gopalan went the honour of delivering the first ball of the tournament. Hisonly Test match was againstEngland atCalcutta in early 1934.
Gopalan's hockey career was helped by Robert Summerhayes who was to hockey in Madras what Johnstone was to cricket. In 1935, he touredNew Zealand with the Indianhockey team which enjoyed enormous success. The next year he was selected for thecricket team to tour England. It was known beforehand that Gopalan would have a small role to play in the England tour because of the presence ofMohammad Nissar andAmar Singh. He might have been picked in the hockey team for theBerlin Olympics but chose to skip the Olympic trials.[3] This turned out to be a terrible decision. The hockey team captained byDhyan Chand, one of the finest teams in the history of the sport,won the gold medal with little difficulty. As it turned out, Gopalan did not play a Test in England. The tour was marred by internal politics and the team returned in disgrace.[citation needed]
Gopalan's batting improved with time. Johnstone wrote later that it featured a "stance at the wicket with his left toe cocked up in the air. Since it was the stance adopted by England's most famous cricketer,W. G. Grace, he could hardly be faulted on this account. He was then about a No.10 batsman, but by steady application he showed what improvement a bowler who really tries can make in batting and later on played many fine innings".[4][5] The most celebrated of these 'many fine innings' was a 64 against theWest Indians in 1949 which featured some thrilling driving.[6]
In 1952, a silver jubilee fund was started to celebrate Gopalan's 25 years in cricket and hockey. An annual cricket match was instituted between Madras and Ceylon (laterTamil Nadu andSri Lanka) for theM. J. Gopalan Trophy. This yearly tournament continued with a few interruptions till Sri Lanka got Test status in the early 1980s. It was revived in 2000 as a match between Tamil Nadu and a Colombo District Cricket Association. This also lapsed after two years. He served as a national selector for a few years in the 1950s.[citation needed]
Gopalan was the oldest living Test cricketer at the time of his death. According to him, he was born in 1906 but the year of his birth was recorded wrongly in the school records.[7]
One of the entrances to theM. A. Chidambaram Stadium is named after Gopalan.
| Preceded by | Oldest living test cricketer 31 October 2003 – 21 December 2003 | Succeeded by |