Murdered cricket coach was a 'gentle giant' who touched the lives of many, friends say
When the then-teenagers met for the first time, Mr Menon had wickets in his hands. He invited Mr Gerard and his friends to play a game of cricket, and the pair would go on to play with the Singapore Cricket Association (SCA) together.
Now, it is the memories of playing cricket together that Mr Gerard, a CEO of a digital agency, holds closely to his heart.
"Arjun was the pillar of our team. He was our wicketkeeper, and you could see he was so passionate about the game," he said.
Mr Menon was murdered in his residence in Blantyre, Malawi, last Friday night (May 9).
The 48-year-old was the coach of Malawi's national cricket team and had played five senior matches for Singapore's national team before moving to Australia in 1999.
A SMILE THAT WOULD LIGHT UP ANY ROOM
Despite spending parts of his career abroad, Mr Menon always made time for everybody, said Mr Anthony Lourdes, who is based in New Zealand and works as a residential youth worker.
The two were schoolmates in St Patrick's School, but only got close by playing football together as part of the school's alumni team in the last ten years.
Whenever Mr Menon would visit Singapore, the group of friends would get together to play football and go out for drinks.
"Everyone always had the nicest thing to say about him, because that's how he was," he said. "Every time he walked into a room, he smiled … and he would light up any room."
Mr Menon brought different groups of friends from football, cricket and St Patrick's School together.
"So many of us have moved, you know, thousands of miles away, but (Mr Menon) connected all of us in this very, very big way," said Mr Ashley Nonis, who met Mr Menon in St Patrick's School.
"He's a larger-than-life character, literally, I would describe as a gentle giant."
"GAVE HIS WHOLE LIFE" TO CRICKET
Mr Menon always gave and "never expected anything in return", Mr Nonis added. His passion for cricket ran deep, despite the lack of infrastructure and progression for such a career in Singapore, he said.
Mr Menon had followed in his late coach Grant Stanley's footsteps to become the national coach of the men's team from 2015 to 2019.
In 2017, he led the team to win a historic gold at Twenty20 cricket at the Southeast Asian Games.
"He gave his whole life to it, and he travelled the road less taken," said Mr Nonis.
Beyond cricket, Mr Menon was always thinking about ways to give back.
For Mr Jeremy Lim, who knew Mr Menon since they were 13, what he will miss the most about Mr Menon is their conversations, he said.
"When guys get together, it's always about banter. It's always about having a laugh," said the marketing sales director. "But when I sit down with Arjun, it's always about how we can get better. How can we make the world a better place?"
Over the past five years, Mr Menon led charity initiatives in Vietnam in a joint effort with other members of the alumni football team. They would buy sports gear and food, and raise funds for orphans there, Mr Lim said.
KINDNESS REMEMBERED
Above all, friends of Mr Menon whom CNA spoke to, echoed the same sentiment that he was kind.
Mr Nonis, who works in automotive sales, fondly recalled when he first joined the alumni football team. He did not have a jersey yet, so Mr Menon - the team's goalkeeper - offered his.
"Till today, I wear that same jersey every time I play," he said, adding that he would score a "couple of goals" in it.
"So it's really emotional because … our lives are so intertwined, and he was a large part of me growing up."
Mr Nonis added that he "cannot imagine" Mr Menon as someone who would have any enemies.
"It's ridiculous," he said about the murder. "I just can't understand why anyone would do this."
For Mr Gerard, Mr Menon was a "gentleman and a legend". He recalled the pranks Mr Menon would play on him as kids, including a time he pranked him with fake blood.
"He was a prankster, and he would have a huge, hearty laugh," he said. "And he would tell stories to everyone," he said, adding that loyalty and friendship were "above everything else" to Mr Menon.
CELEBRATING HIS LIFE
On Monday, SCA held a minute of silence for Mr Menon before its National League matches at the Singapore National Cricket Ground and Ceylon Sports Club.
"Arjun was more than a coach; he was a mentor, leader and an embodiment of Singaporean values of excellence, humility, and service," SCA said.
Mr Menon's family is set to hold a memorial on May 31. The family has declined to comment at this time.
For Mr Lim, the date weighs extra heavily as it was when he had planned to meet Mr Menon in Africa. He had planned a trip with his family to visit Zimbabwe, Johannesburg and Botswana. Mr Menon had helped to vet their itinerary, he said.
"He was going to come all the way (from Malawi) just to hang out for a couple of days. So that's the kind of guy he is."
Moving forward, his friends hope to honour him through his love for sport.
"The idea, I think, is to now organise something for him once a year, just in his memory," said Mr Lim. "We'll play football, do something with cricket guys, and celebrate him."
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In 4-D, top winners get between $2,000 and $3,000 for every $1 bet. Punters pick a four-digit number from 0000 to 9999. Each draw has 23 winning numbers: 10 consolation prizes, 10 starter prizes and the top three wins. That means every ticket has a 23 in 10,000 chance of winning – better odds than Toto, but frequent wins are still rare. So, why do typically rational, risk-averse individuals willingly spend money on something as statistically improbable as the lottery? Jason, who is married and not planning to have children, considers himself a conservative spender. The 33-year-old saves more than 20 per cent of his pay cheque and has a non-risky investment portfolio. 'It seems quite unlikely our generation can retire early. Also, job prospects are forever questionable,' he says, explaining why he sees the lottery as a form of investment hedge. 'I buy expecting to lose, but on the very off chance that it pays off, then it is a safety net,' he adds. 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Now 38, she touched on the darker side of sudden wealth, revealing that the pressure of her win pushed her into depression. At one point, she even tried to take her own life. 'It just became too much to cope with,' she said. 'Not knowing who genuinely liked me any more was hard – and the stress of all that money made it worse.' More on this topic What to do with $100,000 windfall or spare cash? Care for Winners In 2010, Singapore Pools launched the Winners Wealth Management programme, a voluntary programme designed to help lottery winners who have received more than $1 million learn how to manage their new-found wealth. In 2016, the programme was relaunched as Care for Winners. In collaboration with MoneySense, Singapore's national financial education programme, winners are offered practical financial planning tips, such as keeping news of the win within a trusted circle, settling outstanding debts and making sound investment decisions. 'We realised that coming into sudden wealth can be overwhelming, and people often need some help navigating what to do next,' says Mr Chin Sau Ho, senior director of community partnerships and communications at Singapore Pools. Citing cautionary tales from overseas, he notes that many big winners eventually find themselves worse off than before their windfall. 'That is exactly what we are trying to help winners in Singapore avoid. You have already beaten the odds to receive this large windfall. We want you to be a winner for life, by equipping you with the tools to manage your money wisely,' he says, adding that most lottery winners are open to enrolling in the programme. While dramatic stories of sudden wealth gone wrong often make headlines and serve as cautionary tales, the lottery winners interviewed by The Sunday Times appear to be more level-headed about their unexpected windfall. How a million dollars changed his life Mr Leong describes the sudden wealth in his early 20s as 'a stepping stone for you to do whatever you want'. It changed the course of his life, although the journey started on a muted note. During the Chinese New Year holidays, the Singapore Pools office was closed, so he had to wait three days to collect his $1 million winnings. 'Honestly, I kept questioning whether it was real. I worried about losing the ticket or getting into an accident,' he recalls. When the office reopened, he went to the main branch with his girlfriend and her father, expecting a long and complicated process. He was surprised when all he had to do was take a queue number before he was handed a cheque. After cashing the cheque, he gave half the winnings to his girlfriend (now wife). Both gave part of the money to their parents. The son of a taxi driver and an office administrator, Mr Leong says he did not know how to manage the money. 'But I was clear on one thing: I wasn't going to 'flex' or change my lifestyle. Char Siu Lang founder Ivan Leong showing his winning Toto ticket. ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO 'I don't know much about luxury brands. I don't know anything about Chanel or Louis Vuitton,' says Mr Leong, who splurged only on a $500 Tissot watch he had been eyeing. After working at his first job for a year, he decided to resign. 'I was pretty relaxed at that time. With that kind of money, my girlfriend and I took a short break from work, did some travelling and just enjoyed life,' he says. They then successfully applied for a Build-To-Order flat together, and paid for most of the mortgage in cash. Now 36, married and a father to a two-year-old, he says the real jackpot was the freedom to explore various careers without stress. He worked in a start-up as an operation manager and sold insurance for a few years. In 2017, a friend took the foodie and enthusiastic home cook to a hawker stall for char siew rice. It sparked the idea of starting his own char siew stall. As it turned out, his friend knew the hawker who mentioned he was looking to hire a helper. The pay was modest, at just over $1,000 a month, but Mr Leong did not hesitate. To him, becoming a hawker's assistant was a hands-on apprenticeship in the art of roasting and the realities of running a hawker business. Two years later, he struck out on his own, launching Char Siu Lang in Bukit Merah. That first stall eventually closed, but he runs two other outlets in Ang Mo Kio and Woodlands today. Many are surprised that despite winning the lottery, Mr Leong still chooses the sweaty, backbreaking grind of hawker life. 'If I were you, I would retire,' people often tell him. Others pitch unsolicited advice, urging him to invest in cryptocurrencies or financial portfolios. But Mr Leong prefers to play it safe, sticking with tried-and-tested options like property and fixed deposits. He believes everything happens for a reason, and that buying a lottery ticket was 'buying a hope'. A 10-year survey on older Singaporeans, which included their lottery habits, explored how unexpected winnings affect how people spend their money. The researchers tracked spending patterns across more than 30 categories, comparing splurges on long-lasting goods like furniture and electronics with day-to-day purchases, and weighing public, showy spending against private indulgences. 'One myth is that if you win a big lottery prize, you are going to spend it in a way that is very conspicuous and irrational,' says economics professor Kim Seonghoon of Singapore Management University, who led the study released in 2024. But the truth is quite the opposite, he adds. Most lottery winners continue to live life pretty much like how they did before they struck gold. For every $1 of lottery prize, consumption spending increases by 50 cents within the first year of winning. Instead of spending on luxury cars or homes, lottery winners here spent most of their money on non-durables like food and household goods. In a separate 2021 study, Associate Professor Kim discovered that every $10,000 boost in income from a lottery win led to a small but meaningful and measurable increase in self-reported health. He cites a famous Swedish study published in 2020 which showed that lottery winners' long-term health did not improve there despite a big jump in income. However, in Singapore, he continues, lottery winners reported feeling healthier, at least in the short term, after their windfall. 'It does not necessarily reduce objective health markers like cancer incidence or stroke incidences, but lottery winners might have better peace of mind, better life satisfaction via higher income,' he says. 'As far as my empirical analysis suggests, I don't see an adverse impact of winning a lottery prize from Singapore,' Prof Kim says with a laugh. More on this topic $200k jackpot: US man wins lottery 3 times in a year with same set of numbers Society also wins Since its inception, Singapore Pools has operated as a not-for-profit organisation. In 2024, it reported a record turnover of $12.2 billion. 'Many people tend to see Singapore Pools only in terms of our products and services,' says Mr Chin. 'But what they may not realise is that if we didn't exist, much of that gambling activity would move to illegal platforms, and the $12 billion in revenue would leave our economy and flow overseas.' He adds that by operating legally, Singapore Pools ensures that the money stays within the country, ultimately benefiting Singaporean society and its people. For every dollar placed as a bet, the organisation pays a 22 cent betting duty to the Government. According to its 2024 annual report, 70 per cent of Singapore Pools' revenue is spent on prize payouts, 22 per cent on gambling duties and taxes, and 3 per cent is earmarked for operational costs. Around 5 per cent of the gambling revenue is channelled back to the Tote Board, a statutory board under the Ministry of Finance that oversees Singapore Pools and functions as a broad-based grant-making organisation. Especially during the early nation-building years after independence, these profits helped to fund the building of major landmarks in Singapore. Between 1968 and 1976, $14.5 million of lottery revenue went towards the construction of the former National Stadium. It also helped to fund the building of the Indoor Stadium (1988), Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay (1996), and Gardens by the Bay. The Tote Board gives, on average, $500 million a year to support programmes that uplift vulnerable groups, champion community well-being and encourage social cohesion. These include programmes in the areas of healthy living, community care, sports and arts. Reflecting on Singapore Pools' pragmatic approach to gambling, Mr Chin notes: 'Some people see gambling purely as a vice, and may not understand our role. But they don't realise that good can still come from it.' On an individual level, some winners also believe in paying it forward. One of them is Madam Tan (not her real name), who has won four times in the past year alone. The biggest prize was $17,800 for a $30 4-D bet made in December 2024. Her other winnings ranged from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars. Despite these windfalls, the 67-year-old says her lifestyle has not changed much. She still has never taken a flight out of Singapore. Instead, Madam Tan, who is self-employed and married with adult children, spends her winnings supporting a cat welfare organisation she has been volunteering with for the past 20 years. 'These animals are so pitiful, and if we don't help them, no one will,' she says, adding that the shelter she volunteers at needs around $5,000 a month to cover rent, food and medical expenses for the animals. She credits her good luck to good karma, and also a little divine help. At least once a week, she visits the Chinatown Erawan Shrine, which is in a religious goods store in People's Park Centre. Thai dancers at the Chinatown Erawan Shrine on Feb 26. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG 'I always bet on the numbers on my identity card,' says Madam Tan, who has spent about $40 on Toto or 4-D bets each week for the past two decades, betting on a set of numbers up to three times. If there are no wins, she moves on to a new set. If she ever wins a big jackpot, she hopes to use the money to buy a property and turn it into an animal shelter. 'I always say, this is money that drops from the sky, so I must use it for good,' she says.
