Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK) will be honouring and celebrating former cricketers who played for Tamil Nadu.

Over the past 85 years, Tamil Nadu has produced a lot of cricketers who have built the foundation for the thriving sport as we see it today. As it is well known, cricketers in the early 50's and 60's did not get much monetary benefit playing the game that we all love so much.

"In recognition and appreciation of their immense contribution towards the game, TNCA has instituted a one-time payment of Rs 5 lakh to cricketers, grounds men, match officials and others who helped build our sport," CSK said in an official statement.

Welcoming this initiative, CSK whose home base is Chennai, Tamil Nadu has come forward to show their love and respect to these veterans and will be contributing Rs 7 lakh each to some of the veteran cricketers - the number synonymous with our much-loved captain.

The beneficiaries include:

K R Rajagopal - A superlative batsman and wicketkeeper who played for Tamil Nadu. He was distinctly unlucky to miss out on the 1967 Indian team tour to Australia by a whisker despite his prolific scores in that year's Domestic tournaments, amassing nearly 800 runs in the Ranji Trophy.

Najam Hussain - A great all-rounder who played for Mysore, Madras and Jolly Rovers in the 1960s & scored a century for Mysore against Hyderabad in a historic match that created a world record for the first time in 80 years of cricket. All the 20 wickets claimed by Mysore were dismissals recorded as 'Caught'.

S V S Mani - He played for Tamil Nadu & South Zone alongside legends such as VV Kumar, S Venkataraghavan, AG Milkha Singh, Jaisimha, Prasanna and AG Kripal Singh and was in the Test Reserve of the Indian team.

R Prabhakar - A Tamil Nadu Ranji player who often opened the bowling with his medium-pace cutters and batted well down the order. His 160+ knock in 30 overs of the Hindu Trophy included 16 sixes and fourteen fours is still etched in the minds of people who witnessed the knock.

K Parthasarathy - A popular Curator of M A Chidambaram stadium from 1973 till his retirement in 2013. He has curated matches in all formats including 3 World Cup matches, 4 Women's World Cup matches, India 'A' series games and was also associated with the tied Test in 1986.

( With inputs from ANI )

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