Venkatraman Ramnarayan (born 8 November 1947, in
Madras
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...
) is a former Indian
first-class cricketer and current journalist, editor, translator and teacher.
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. In the final of the
Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup Tournament
The Moin-ud-Dowlah Gold Cup Tournament is an Indian cricket competition that has been held in Hyderabad (and sometimes nearby Secunderabad) since 1930-31. From 1930-31 to 1937-38, and from 1962-63 to 1973-74, it had first-class status.
1930-31 t ...
in October 1975 he took 8 for 75 in the first innings for Hyderabad Cricket Association XI, who went on to win the match. A week later he made his first-class debut for
Hyderabad against
Kerala in the
Ranji Trophy
The Ranji Trophy (also known as Mastercard Ranji Trophy for sponsorship reasons) is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between multiple teams representing regional and state cricket associations. Board of Control for Cr ...
, taking 6 for 33 in the first innings. A further week later, in the first innings against
Andhra, he took 6 for 41. 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.
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. 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.
Journalism career
Ramnarayan is a regular columnist for ''
Cricinfo
ESPN cricinfo (formerly known as Cricinfo or CricInfo) is a sports news website exclusively for the game of cricket. The site features news, articles, live coverage of cricket matches (including liveblogs and scorecards), and ''StatsGuru'', a d ...
'', the editor of ''
Sruti'', a monthly performing arts magazine, and a teacher at the
Asian College of Journalism, Chennai
The Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) is a journalism school in Chennai, India, which offers postgraduate diploma courses in journalism.
History
Asian College of Journalism, Chennai was founded in Bangalore as the Asian School of Journalism, Ba ...
. He has also translated books from
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nati ...
into English.
In 2015 he published a memoir of his first-class cricket career, ''Third Man: Recollections from a Life in Cricket''.
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
External links
*
*
V. Ramnarayan's articles for Cricinfo*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramnarayan, Venkatraman
1947 births
Living people
Cricketers from Chennai
Indian cricketers
Hyderabad cricketers
South Zone cricketers
Savitribai Phule Pune University alumni
Cricket historians and writers
Indian magazine editors
Indian cricket commentators
Journalists from Tamil Nadu
Indian sportswriters
20th-century Indian biographers