Cotah Ramaswami

Cotah Ramaswami – sometimes written as Cota or Cotar – (born 16 June 1896, presumed to have died in January 1990) was a double sports international who represented India in cricket and tennis.

Family and early life Ramaswami came from one of the leading sports families in India. He was the youngest son of Buchi Babu Naidu, often considered the father of South Indian cricket. His two brothers, son and four nephews all played first class cricket.

When the only brother of his mother died young, Ramaswami was given in adoption to his maternal grandfather, which led to his family name being different from that of his brothers.

Cricket Ramaswami was an attacking left-handed batsman. He played first-class cricket in India from 1915 to 1942. He represented the Indians in the annual Madras Presidency Matches from 1915 to 1940, and played for Madras in the Ranji Trophy from 1934 to 1941.

Ramaswami's 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. Ramaswami played for Hindus against Arthur Gilligan's MCC team in 1926-27 and scored 83 against Jack Ryder's Australian Services XI in 1935–36. He made his highest score of 127 not out against Lancashire in 1936.

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 (1967) is one of the first autobiographies in Indian cricket. He is one of the four Indian cricketing double internationals, the others being S. M. Hadi, M. J. Gopalan, and Yuzvendra Chahal.

Ramaswami married Lakshmi Chaya Devi in 1928. He had two sons, Ram Swarup and Lakshman Swarup, and a daughter, Shantha Devi. Ram Swarup represented Madras and Andhra in first-class cricket.

Disappearance Ramaswami left his home in Adyar on the morning of 15 October 1985 and never returned. There were occasional rumours about him being sighted. Wisden listed him as "presumed dead" from 1988 to 1991.