Thirumalai Ananthanpillai Sekhar, born on 28th March, 1956, in Madras (presently Chennai) was a right-hand batsman and right-arm medium-fast bowler. One of the main pillars of the fastest bowling forces in the country, T.A. Sekhar has ruled the early 1980s Indian cricket.
Career of T.A. Sekhar
This superb bowler had played in Test as well as One-Day International cricket for India. This sturdy and tall player had represented the major teams such as India, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
His capture of nine wickets against Kerala in the Ranji Trophy in 1982-83 was awesome. He maintained this fascinating level of performance even in the Duleep Trophy and finally with such grand groundwork he made an elevating leap into the Indian national team.
He made his entrance as a substitute for the wounded Madan Lal. He was invited for participating in the two Test matches against Pakistan of the 1982-83 seasons. Unfortunately he failed to pick up a single wicket in any of the two matches. The Indian Team had also cast him in a One-Day Internationals during that same series.
Besides, T.A. Sekhar had also joined the Indian squad in three other ODI matches against the opponent England, after two years. His last ODI was against England in 1985.
Sekhar`s performance in domestic cricket was excellence personified. He grabbed a record 74 brilliant wickets for Tamil Nadu swiftly between 1976-77 and 1987-88. The peak of his feat was his fabulous grasp of 9 wickets of Kerala, for just 54 runs in 1981-82. He had played for Madhya Pradesh over a span of two seasons.
Batting and Fielding averages
| Mat | Inns | NO | Runs | HS | Ave | BF | SR | 100 | 50 | 4s | 6s | Ct | St | |
| Tests | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0* | - | 2 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ODIs | 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0 | 0 | |||||
| First-class | 44 | 46 | 11 | 495 | 58 | 14.14 | 0 | 1 | 19 | 0 | ||||
| List A | 19 | 7 | 2 | 24 | 7 | 4.80 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | ||||
Bowling Averages
| Mat | Inns | Balls | Runs | Wkts | BBI | BBM | Ave | Econ | SR | 4w | 5w | 10 | |
| Tests | 2 | 2 | 204 | 129 | 0 | 3.79 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| ODIs | 4 | 4 | 156 | 128 | 5 | 3/23 | 3/23 | 25.60 | 4.92 | 31.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| First-class | 44 | 6066 | 3606 | 130 | 9/54 | 27.73 | 3.56 | 46.6 | 7 | 2 | |||
| List A | 19 | 864 | 559 | 17 | 3/18 | 3/18 | 32.88 | 3.88 | 50.8 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Life After Professional Cricket for T.A. Sekhar
After bidding adieu, to playing profession, his recent assignment was that of a bowling coach at the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai. Even he has another professional dimension of being a national selector for a span of time. He is positioned as a South Zone representative within the Selection Committee. It is evident, that T.A. Sekhar has always preferred to remain attached to cricket, his foremost priority.
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