“Cricket was his religion and the Madras Cricket Club was
his Church,”it was said of one of its most illustrious members since its
inceptionin 1846. how well the description would have fit so many before andafter
him! Inextricably entwined with the history of Madras (and laterTamil Nadu) Cricket,
the institution founded by that eminent civilservant, Sir Alexander Arbuthnot,
largely to fill the Englishman’s needfor a home away from home, continues to
mean as much to its memberstoday as it did 150 years ago.