AT his football peak in the 1960s, he was hailed as an Asian-class striker-wizard, a sporting leader in the field who was revered by his contemporaries.
“He was like a Marcus Rashford (Manchester United’s icon England striker), big, strong and friendly, who had the knack of putting the ball, with any part of his body, into the net. Even today, I believe, he’d easily walk into the national team anytime,” says former Singapore defender-legend “Rocky” Lim Tien Jit from Bangkok, Thailand, as he paid tribute to the late Sudheesan Anandan.
Sudheesan died early Friday morning of heart attack after being in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) for about a fortnight. He would’ve been 70 in June. He leaves behind wife, Syon, a retired educationist, son Sunil and daughter Sunita.
“Rocky” says he adored Sudheesan from Raffles Institution days in the mid-1960s. He says: “He was three years my senior, played with him and he mentored a lot of us. Just watching him as a role-model striker was unbelievable. He was very quick with the ball, powerful with shootings and headers but most importantly, what endered him was his humility as a leader.
“I’ve the highest admiration for him. I was sad when I heard he was not in good health recently. Now he’s in God’s Shangri-La. His passing will be a big loss to Sembawang/Naval Base, where he was like a home-grown role-model in so many ways.”
Sudheesan hailed from a footballing family where his brothers Subhas (icon criminal lawyer) and Surash (Singapore Airlines) were notable stalwarts from the Sembawang ‘kampung’ which produced some of Singapore’s most famous sporting heroes, including the icon Quah family and former national coaches V. Sundramoorthy and P.N. Sivaji.
MOST FEARED TEAMS
Sudheesan spearheaded JAA (Junior Athletic Association) which was one of the most feared teams in the National Football League (NFL) Division One in the 1960s and 70s. Former JAA defender and international fullback Bernard Nobet recollects how Sudheesan “mentored and protected me during my early playing years”.
“He was very supportive of the younger players and always ordered us to play ‘fair’ football during the hey-days when there were rogue teams who simply resorted to breaking legs,” says Nobet, who was also Tampines Rovers coach in the 1980s. “Sudheesan was no-nonsense in every way, although aggressive in playing style but always wanted us to use our football skills to win fair and square.”
Malaysia Cup hero-striker of the 1970s, Quah Kim Song, the youngest star footballer from the celebrity Quah family, says: “The Quahs and Anandans from Naval Base were very close, as family friends. Football-wise, both excelled and Sudheesan’s death leaves a lot of us moaning of a wonderful neighbourhood-brother, who stood out as a genuine role model. I feel very sad.”
Broadcasting legend Brian Richmond, who played in the NFL for Hamilton FC, remembers Sudheesan when they played in the 1967 Asian Youth Tournament in Bangkok, where the Lions finished fourth – the best-ever achievement for Singapore at Asian juniors level. He says: “I was the skipper and I enjoyed the way Sudheesan carried himself. Very quiet, no ‘airs’, never showed off but there was a rare intelligence in the way he played and his very bright academic attributes.”
After Naval Base Secondary School and Raffles Institution, where he did his education, Sudheesan graduated from the University of Singapore and went on to a prolonged career with Mindef (Ministry of Defence), retiring as a Budget Analyst. He was also former Head, Transformation and Plans, DES at Mindef.
TEAR-JERKING MOMENT
I vividly remember Sudheesan’s worst tear-jerking moment on October 31 2000 when his youngest flight-steward brother, Surash Anandan, tragically died in Taipei, Taiwan, when a Singapore Airlines Flight 747-412 crashed while attempting to take-off from the runway at Chiang Kai-shek International Airport during a night-typhoon. The aircraft crashed into construction equipment on the runway, killing 81 of the 179 occupants aboard. It was the first and only Singapore Airlines crash to result in fatalities.
Tears in his eyes, Sudheesan, bravely spoke in a Channel 5 documentary, a few years later, how he and Sunita, his only daughter, cried unstoppably when they saw over television the SIA plane crashing along the Taipei runway. And they knew few could ever have survived such horror.
He married sports-educationist Syon, who was also his class-mate at Naval Base School, raising two kids in Sunil and Sunita at the Sembawang family home in Jalan Shaer. And even during retirement years, the past decade, the couple enjoyed many overseas holidays as a form of amicable family-relaxation.
Perhaps one of Sudheesan’s biggest prides was when his only son, Sunil, took to law and was privileged to be mentored by his elder uncle, (the late) Subhas, acclaimed as Singapore’s most prominent criminal lawyer. Sunil is now Head of the Criminal Department at Quahe Woo & Palmer LLC and followed the distinguished footsteps of his uncle to be President of the Association of Criminal Lawyers of Singapore.
BRIGHT-SPARK FAMILY
Veteran journalist P.N. Balji, who has edited leading newspapers in both the Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) and MediaCorp stables and now set to release a potential editorial-thriller “The Reluctant Editor” in early June, spoke of his childhood days with the the Anandan family, who lived a floor directly upstairs at Block 9, Naval Base Quarters.
“Sudheesan came from a bright-spark family where the siblings excelled academically and the boys were football stalwarts. They were a very committed family and worked very hard to come up in life,” says Balji.
“Sudheesan and I were class-mates at Naval Base Secondary School, likewise his wife Syon. He was very intelligent, ranking as one of the top students who moved on to Raffles Institution, where he further excelled in tertiary education and went on to a very successful career in Mindef.”
Balji recalls Sudheesan as a ‘gila bola’ (‘mad on football’ in Malay) who found extreme outdoor excitement in the world’s No 1 sport, just like Balji’s younger brother, former national coach P.N. Sivaji, now a technical director with a Myanmar-based pro club Hantharwardy United.
He adds: “Sudheesan’s a very special breed to excel in academics and sports. I reckon they’re a different class who gave their best shots in whatever they did, and something the younger generation should emulate.”
Sivaji, in a faraway SMS from Myanmar, wrote: “Very sad to lose such a wonderful, jovial and caring friend. I adored him very much as I look back to the good ‘ole Naval Base days. I particularly admired his fearlessness against all odds.
“He, together with the likes of ‘Gondol’ Varadaraju (Sundramoorthy’s late father) used to protect the teenagers like Bernard Norbet, Quah Kim Song, etc when we played for Junior Athletic Association (JAA). We were kids, 18, 19 year olds playing in a very competitive, if not rough-end national league.”
Much as Sivaji, on his frequent overseas assignments, kept in touch with Sudheesan through the email, he regrets not having had the chance to say a proper farewell.
“The last I met him was about five years ago with some old ‘block’ boys. I had arranged with a mutual friend to catch up with him during my return to Singapore recently but somehow missed the date,” he says. “That’s turned out to be a very huge regret. And due to my present stint in Myanmar, I’m unable to be present at his funeral and this really tears my heart.”
Rest in Peace (RIP) Sudheesan. Brain and brawn, a rare role-model breed of a simple Sembawang heartland hero.
Sudheesan’s body is resting at 2 Jalan Shaer, Sembawang, Singapore 769350. Cremation is at 5.00pm Saturday at Mandai Crematorium. – By Suresh Nair
- Suresh Nair is a Singapore-based journalist who has known the Anandan family for over four decades and admires the prolific football fanfares of Sudheesan, Subhas and Surash.
