Sagi Lakshmi Venkatapathy Raju, sometimes spelt Venkapathy Raju (born 9 July 1969) is a former Indian

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er , cricket administrators & cricket coach. He came into the Indian side in 1989–90 after capturing 32 wickets in the domestic season. He made his

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and One Day International début in the tour of

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. When sent in as a night-watchman in his first Test innings, he batted for more than two hours for 31 runs while six wickets fell at the other end. He was part of the Indian team in

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in 1990, but the knuckle of his left hand was broken by

Courtney Walsh Courtney Andrew Walsh OJ (born 30 October 1962) is a former Jamaican cricketer who represented the West Indies from 1984 to 2001, captaining the West Indies in 22 Test matches. He is a fast bowler and considered one of the all-time greats, best ...

in the match against

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which ended his tour. Back home in India, he helped

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

win the one-off Test against Sri Lanka in the only Test match played at the

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. Raju was a last-minute selection on a wicket that afforded turn and kept low. On the second day, he ran through the Lankan middle order with a spell of 5 wickets for two runs in 39 balls. He took one more wicket on the next day to finish with 6 for 12 in 17.5 overs, four of the batsmen failed to score. His match figures of 8 for 37 in 53 overs won him the only man of the match award of his international career. He has played two World Cups for India in 1992 and 1996. He last played a Test match against Australia in

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, where he captured the wicket of

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. He continued playing for

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for many years, making the final of the 1999–2000 Ranji Trophy. He retired from first-class cricket in December 2004, after a domestic match against

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Early life

Venkatapathy Raju grew up in

and attended

The Hyderabad Public School, Ramanthapur The Hyderabad Public School is located in Ramanthapur, Hyderabad, India, Hyderabad, Telangana, India. The school was established in 1972. It is a branch of Hyderabad Public School located at Begumpet. It has over 2300 students in grades PP1 t ...

in Hyderabad. Raju is married to Jayanthi.

Present role

Raju was the vice president of

Hyderabad Cricket Association Hyderabad Cricket Association is the governing body of cricket activities in the Hyderabad and other districts in the state of Telangana in India and the Hyderabad cricket team. It is affiliated to the Board of Control for Cricket in India. The ...

. Earlier, he was the selector for Indian Cricket Team from the south zone during 2007-2008, when India won the ICC World T20 under

Dhoni Mahendra Singh Dhoni (; born 7 July 1981) is an Indian former international cricketer who was captain of the Indian national cricket team in limited-overs formats from 2007 to 2017 and in Test cricket from 2008 to 2014. He is also the curren ...

's captaincy. Currently working as a commentator for

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Telugu premium channel for CWC2019.Raju inspires Pragyan Ojha
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Role model status

Left-arm orthodox spinner

Pragyan Ojha Pragyan, NIT Trichy is the technical festival of the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli. Since its inception in 2005, it has been held every year over a period of three and a half days during the months of January, February, or M ...

claimed in an interview that it was Raju that inspired him to play for India. Very surprising decision of not picking him in 1996 World Cup Semi Final cost India heavily as they could not make using of spin track of Eden Gardens, Kolkata & lost heavily. Later in Singapore Raju picked 3 wickets against SL and won the match for India.

References

External links

Interview of Venkatapathy Raju in CricketFundas.comInterview of Venkatapathy Raju in Telangana Today
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raju, Venkatapathy 1969 births Living people India One Day International cricketers Raji, Venkatapath Indian cricketers Hyderabad cricketers South Zone cricketers People from East Godavari district Telugu people Raji, Venkatapath Indian cricket coaches Cricketers from Andhra Pradesh Coaches of the United States national cricket team Coaches of the Nepal national cricket team Cricketers at the 1992 Cricket World Cup Cricketers at the 1996 Cricket World Cup Alumni of All Saints High School, Hyderabad