Venkatraman Ramnarayan

Venkatraman Ramnarayan (born 8 November 1947, in Madras) is a former Indian first-class cricketer and current journalist, editor, translator and teacher.

Venkatraman Ramnarayan

Personal information
Born	(1947-11-08) 8 November 1947 (age 75) Madras, India
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm off-spin
Relations	Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan (nephew), V. Sivaramakrishan (brother)
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1975–1979	Hyderabad
Career statistics
Competition FC List A Matches 25 2 Runs scored 71 – Batting average 4.17 – 100s/50s 0/0 – Top score 9 – Balls bowled 5476 144 Wickets 96 7 Bowling average 23.23 11.00 5 wickets in innings 4 0 10 wickets in match 0 n/a Best bowling 7/68 4/35 Catches/stumpings 15/– 2/–
Source: ESPNcricinfo, 11 December 2015

In this Indian name, the name Venkatraman is a patronymic, and the person should be referred to by the given name, Ramnarayan.

Cricket career

An off-spin bowler, Ramnarayan left his native Tamil Nadu and moved to Hyderabad in 1971 to see if he could break into first-class cricket.^[1] In the final of the Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup Tournament in October 1975 he took 8 for 75 in the first innings for Hyderabad Cricket Association XI, who went on to win the match.^[2] A week later he made his first-class debut for Hyderabad against Kerala in the Ranji Trophy, taking 6 for 33 in the first innings.^[3] A further week later, in the first innings against Andhra, he took 6 for 41.^[4] In the quarter-final against Bombay he took 7 for 68 in the first innings, but Bombay won the match after trailing on the first innings, and went on to win the championship.^[5]

With 28 wickets at an average of 17.32, 1975-76 was Ramnarayan's most successful season, but he continued to play for Hyderabad in the Ranji Trophy until 1979-80.^[6] He also played for South Zone in the Duleep Trophy in 1978-79 and in 1980-81 when, in his last first-class match, he took 4 for 144 off 51 overs in the first innings.^[7]

Journalism career

Ramnarayan is a regular columnist for Cricinfo, the editor of Sruti, a monthly performing arts magazine, and a teacher at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai. He has also translated books from Tamil into English.^[8]

In 2015 he published a memoir of his first-class cricket career, Third Man: Recollections from a Life in Cricket.^[9][10] He writes under the name "V. Ramnarayan".

Books by V. Ramnarayan

• Mosquitos and Other Jolly Rovers: The Story of Tamil Nadu Cricket (2002)
• R.K. Swamy, His Life and Times: From Humble Village Origins to the Top Rungs of a Contemporary Profession (2007)
• Third Man: Recollections from a Life in Cricket (2015)

References

1. Veera, Sriram (22 November 2007). "One that drifted away". Cricinfo. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
2. "Hyderabad Cricket Association XI v JK Sports XI 1975-76". CricketArchive. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
3. "Kerala v Hyderabad 1975-76". CricketArchive. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
4. "Hyderabad v Andhra 1975-76". CricketArchive. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
5. "Bombay v Hyderabad 1975-76". CricketArchive. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
6. "First-class bowling in each season by Venkatraman Ramnarayan". CricketArchive. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
7. "Central Zone v South Zone 1980-81". CricketArchive. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
8. Ugra, Sharda (9 May 2015). "First-class tales". Cricinfo. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
9. "Third Man: Recollections from a Life in Cricket". Westland. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
10. Samanth Subramanian (November 2015). "Unknown cricketers". The Cricket Monthly. ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 6 May 2016.

External links

• Venkatraman Ramnarayan at ESPNcricinfo
• Venkatraman Ramnarayan at CricketArchive (subscription required)
• V. Ramnarayan's articles for Cricinfo
• "Whatever happened to sportsmanship?" by V. Ramnarayan
• Interview with Venkatraman Ramnarayan in 2012 on YouTube
• "Understanding Chennai fans and V. Ramnarayan" on YouTube