Vilayattasseri Mullambalath Balachandran (25 November 1925 – 9 January 2010), known as Vimcy, was a sports writer from Kerala

Kerala

or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....

. He is considered to be the pioneer of sports journalism in Kerala. He won numerous awards during his journalistic career spanning more than half a century.

Biography

Balachandran was born on 25 November 1925 at Thamarassery

Thamarassery

Thamarassery is a picturesque town in Kozhikode district of Kerala, India, 30 km east of Kozhikode City. It lies on the Calicut - Wayanad route...

 in Kozhikode district

Kozhikode district

Kozhikode District , formerly Calicut, is a district of Kerala state, situated on the southwest coast of India. The city of Kozhikode, also known as Calicut, is the district headquarters. The district is 38.25% urbanised...

 to Dr. Narayanan Nair and Narayani. Unable to finish his intermediate education at Palakkad Victoria College

Government Victoria College, Palakkad

Government Victoria College Palakkad is the oldest institution of higher learning in the Malabar region of Kerala. It is affiliated to the Calicut University and provides undergraduate and postgraduate education in Science, Arts and Commerce subjects....

 due to ill health, he joined the Kozhikode newspaper Dinaprabha in 1949 as a journalist. He used to write articles in Sanjayan and Viswaroopam under the pen-name of Thampi. In 1950, he became the assistant editor at Mathrubhumi

Mathrubhumi

Mathrubhumi is a Malayalam language newspaper that is published from Kerala, India. Mathrubhumi was founded by K. P. Kesava Menon, an active volunteer in the Indian freedom struggle against the British.-History:...

. After his retirement from Mathrubhumi in 1984, he became associate editor for Calicut Times. He continued to write sports columns for Mathrubhumi, Calicut Times and Madhyamam

Madhyamam

Madhyamam is a Malayalam daily newspaper published from Kerala, India, since 1987.. It was founded in 1987 by the initiatives of Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. It has 10 editions in India and its Gulf edition Gulf Madhyamam has 9 in the Middle East...

. His autobiography titled Valkkashnam was published in 2008. Vimcy died on 9 January 2010 at Bilathikulam in Kozhikode

Kozhikode

Kozhikode During Classical antiquity and the Middle Ages, Kozhikkode was dubbed the "City of Spices" for its role as the major trading point of eastern spices. Kozhikode was once the capital of an independent kingdom of the same name and later of the erstwhile Malabar District...

.

Family

Balachandran was married to Amminiyamma and had three children - Unnikrishnan, Vijayakrishnan, and Meenakshi Sadanandan.

Sports journalism

At a time when Malayalam newspapers dedicated little space to sports news, Vimcy started an entire sports page with Mathrubhumi. It was under him that sports writing became a separate branch of journalism in Kerala. Vimcy was also behind the weekly sports feature page Sports Special in Mathrubhumi. He used to write extensively about Football.

Vimcy won numerous awards including one from Kerala State Sports council for lifelong contributions to the field of sports journalism. Other awards included M.P. Paily award, Neelambaran Memorial award (from Kesari Memorial Committee), T. Aboobacker award and Press Academy Silver Jubilee award.