One of the greatest Indian hockey players, of unsung variety, Susainathan passed away last Sunday. As he breathed his last after bed-ridden for long, another player of yore dims into the oblivion, quietly. Unknown to new generation and unheard of for almost last three decades, the Tamil Nadu born inside-forward was a name to reckon with in his prime.
If there are players who can pull crowd on their own, owing to their gifted skills, this left-inside forward must rank top of them. At least in Tamil Nadu, a region that produced a great number of midfielders, this forward was unique, and crowd turned out to watch him showcase his skills in every tournament.
Reams have been written in his times, that is in the 50s and 60s, on his scoring prowess. Nothing exemplified his nose for goals than the one he scored against the formidable 1952 Olympic team led by KD Singh Babu. In Chennai, it was his goal that gave the hosts a famous victory. Sports and Pastime weekly featured him on the cover after the sterling victory.
The Indian team that had in its rank a goalie in the caliber of Shankar Laxman had to eat a humble pie on that day due to his knack of scoring, is a piece of great history of Chennai hockey, which nowadays under-perform.
The 50s through the 70s were golden era of Tamil Nadu hockey. Be it National championship or the National team, players from this vital southern state made waves.
Susainathan, born in Ooty, joined the Chennai Police midway through the 40s, and had the opportunity to rub the shoulders with the likes of Ranganathan Francis, who went on to win three Olympic gold later on.
Quite a few National participations later, Susainathan was taken to Malaysia tour in 1954. The photo shown in the write up, which features his signature, is taken from the souvenir published by the Malaysian federation on the eve of the tour.
It was of course tough to get into the national teams what with the presence of legends like KD Singh Babu and Chennai’s VJ Peter, specialists left-inners.
He could not therefore make it to many international teams, but that was the story of great players of his state like Sivaprakasam, Rigel Nictor etc, who all had only a token tour abroad.
However, Susainathan could not be denied for long, he was taken to Warsaw where India figured and won a hockey festival.
Susai soon joined TI Cycles, took interest in coaching, held his forte with the TI Cycles’ team.
Though his domestic exploits are yet to be chronicled, it’s the formidable forwardline consisting of Jimmy Carr, Rajamanickam, Susainathan, Rangadoss, Tulasingam and Mehti Hassan that helped the state to win its first National Championship in 1955, by then came to be known as Rangasamy Cup.
It is unfortunate that the feat of such great players fade in the time warp.
Note: This writer tried to fix a meeting with the ailing Susai a year ago when I was doing a time-bound research on Tamil Nadu hockey players. His wards unfortunately were unhelpful, even unkind to me at times.
I was desperate to get a photo of him, present and younger days, and could not do so due to the unhelpful attitude of his sons.
However, a friend in Perth (Australia), whose father was the first Treasurer of Malaysian Hockey Federation, came to my help, getting me relevant pages of the souvenir that featured Susai’s brief, photo and importantly his date and place of birth.
THIS AUTHOR HAS RECENTLY WRITTEN A BOOK ‘TAMIL NADU HOCKEY PLAYERS’ WHICH FEATURES BRIEF PROFILE OF ALL THE 40 ODD INTERNATIONALS THE PROVINCE PRODUCED.