Cotah Ramaswami

Cotar Ramaswami - the first name is sometimes written as Cota or Cotah - (born June 16, 1896, Madras - presumed dead) was a double international who represented India in cricket and tennis.

Ramaswami came from the one of the leading sports families in India. He was the youngest son of Buchi Babu Naidu, the father of Indian cricket in Madras. His two brothers, son and four nephews all played first class cricket. Ramaswami was given in adoption to his own grandfather, which is why his family name is different from that of his brothers [1]. He studied in Wesley High School and Wesley College. On one occasion while in the latter, he put on more than 200 runs for the last wicket to win a match after his team was 50 for nine, himself scoring 188*.

He joined the Cambridge in 1919, where he was denied a trial at cricket. But he won the tennis singles champioship and became a 'blue' in the second year. He represented India against Spain in Davis Cup while he was there. He played only in the doubles where he partnered Dr. Fayzee and won the match. It is not known whether he was picked purely on merit or as a matter of convenience as he was already in Europe. Ramaswami is one of the only two Indian double internationals, the other being M.J. Gopalan.

Ramaswami went on to enjoy some success in tennis in England and USA. After returning to India, he joined the Agricultural Services department in the Madras government.

His two appearances in Test matches came in England in 1936 when he was already 40. He wrote later in his autobiography that he was picked for non-cricketing reasons. Though well past his prime at the time, he scored 40 and 60 on debut and ended his career with an average of 56. He was a left handed batsman and an attacking player.

After the end of his career, he served as a selector and manager to the Indian team to West Indies in 1952-53. His Ramblings of a Games Addict is one of the earliest autobiographies in Indian cricket.

One evening in [1985]], he walked out of his house in Chennai never to come back. There have been newsreports of him being sighted near Mangalore and another of his death, but these are probably only rumours. Wisden lists him as 'presumed dead', one of four such Test cricketers.

Notes

• V.Ramnarayan (see references) writes that while at Cambridge, Ramaswami and S.M.Hadi (another first class cricketer) won a doubles tournament defeating a Dutch pair in the final, who went on to win the Wimbledon doubles title. It is not obvious who the Dutch players were.

References

• V Ramnarayan, Mosquitos and other Jolly Rovers
• Raju Mukherjee, Indian Cricket : Origins and Heroes
• Cricinfo Profile
• Cricketarchive Profile