Kelappan Thampuran was an Indian first-class cricketer who represented the Travancore-Cochin cricket team in domestic competition during the 1950s. He belonged to the broader generation of cricketers from the southern princely and post-princely regions whose careers coincided with the early decades of the Ranji Trophy in independent India.
| Full name | Kelappan Thampuran |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Indian |
| Role | Cricketer (first-class) |
| Domestic team | Travancore-Cochin |
| Era | 1950s |
The name "Thampuran" is a hereditary title used by male members of the royal families of the erstwhile princely states of Travancore and Cochin in present-day Kerala. Several members of these families were associated with cricket in the region, both as patrons and as players, during the late colonial and early post-Independence years.
Kelappan Thampuran played for the Travancore-Cochin team, which competed in the Ranji Trophy after the formation of the United State of Travancore-Cochin in 1949. The side represented cricketers from the merged territories until the linguistic reorganisation of states in 1956, after which the region became part of the new state of Kerala and its cricket was reorganised under the Kerala Cricket Association.
Travancore-Cochin competed in the south zone of the Ranji Trophy, alongside teams such as Madras, Mysore, Hyderabad and Andhra. Cricket in the region was supported by educational institutions in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Thrissur, as well as by members of the former ruling families. Players of Thampuran's generation laid the groundwork for what later became Kerala's first-class cricketing structure.