Former Tamil Nadu batsman Tirumalai Srinivasan died on Monday morning. He was suffering from brain cancer for a long time. The 60-year-old already had two surgeries and was due to have a third when he succumbed to the ailment.
Srinivasan was first noticed when he hit 112 for South Zone against North Zone in a Duleep Trophy match in the 1977-78 season. But after hitting 129 in the 1980-81 Deodhar Trophy final and an unbeaten century against Delhi in the Irani Trophy, he earned a place in the Indian touring party to Australia and New Zealand.
In his solitary Test against New Zealand in Auckland in March 1981, Srinivasan scored 48 runs, and failed in the two ODIs he played. Srinivasan was considered by many to be the best batsman of his times to play for Tamil Nadu.
During his first class career, he had played 75 matches, including 45 in Ranji Trophy, and scored 3,487 runs at an average of 34.18 with five centuries. He was pretty successful when he played in the Yorkshire League for the local outfit Wodehouse.
It drew appreciation from former England captain Michael Atherton, who praised Srinivasan’s strokeplay in his autobiography Opening UP.
