The Jolly Rovers team which won the MAC-TNCA First Division championship, 2002-03. Standing (from left): P. Padmanabhan (Trainer), C. Ganapathy, G. Jayakumar (Asst. Coach), R.S. Murali, Vikram Kumar, D. Tamil Kumaran, J. Hariesh, S. Badrinath, L. Balaji, V. Shankar, R. Ramkumar, K. Sivakumar, A.G. Srinivas, H. Vatekar, Rahul and S. Arun (Scorer). Sitting (from left): Ajay Kudua, Hemang Badani, S. Sujith, Vijay Sankar (Director, Chemplast Sanmar), Bharath Reddy (Manager), D. Vasu (Captain), Abdul Jabbar (Coach) and K. Ram Mohan (Asst. Manager).
Jolly Rovers Cricket Club, the pride of the Sanmar Group for well over three decades, gave yet another fillip to the Group’s sports promotion activities by annexing the Palayampatti Shield for the senior division league championship of the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association for the third straight year the league was completed. (The league was left unfinished last season, when too, Jolly Rovers was in a commanding position).
To win the championship, Jolly Rovers had to overcome stiff opposition in the semifinal and final rounds of a mini-knockout introduced in the league a couple of years ago, beating Indian Overseas Bank and Vijay CC convincingly in successive matches.
In the final round, fine batting by lefthanded Indian batsman Hemang Badani, well supported by Sujith Somasundar and Ajay Kudua, and good bowling by India pace bowler L Balaji, enabled Rovers to turn around a match which at one stage looked like going the opponents, Vijay CC’s way. In the end, the Chemplast sponsored team prevailed
comfortably over its India Cements supported rival, by a margin of 74 runs. For the losers, young left hander Sunil Viswanathan made a fighting 119.
S Badrinath, with 762 runs, was Jolly Rovers’ leading rungetter for the season, while skipper D Vasu (41 wickets) and R Ramkumar (39 wickets) were consistent with their left arm spin bowling.