Venkatapathy Raju

Sagi Lakshmi Venkatapathy Raju, better known as Venkatapathy Raju^[1] (born 9 July 1969), is a former Indian cricketer, cricket administrators and cricket coach. He came into the Indian side in 1989–90 after capturing 32 wickets in the domestic season. He made his Test and One Day International debut on the tour of New Zealand. 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 England in 1990, but his tour ended prematurely when a ball by Courtney Walsh broke the knuckle of his left hand in the match against Gloucestershire. He was a part of the Indian squad which won the 1990-91 Asia Cup.

Venkatapathy Raju

Personal information
Full name	Sagi Lakshmi Venkatapathy Raju
Born	(1969-07-09) 9 July 1969 (age 55) Alamuru, Andhra Pradesh, India
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Slow left-arm orthodox
Role	Bowler
International information
National side	India
Test debut (cap 189)	2 February 1990 v New Zealand
Last Test	11 March 2001 v Australia
ODI debut (cap 75)	1 March 1990 v New Zealand
Last ODI	26 May 1996 v England
Career statistics
Competition Test ODI FC LA Matches 28 53 177 124 Runs scored 240 32 1,952 109 Batting average 10.00 4.00 13.18 5.45 100s/50s 0/0 0/0 0/2 0/0 Top score 31 8 54 22 Balls bowled 7,602 2,770 42,710 6430 Wickets 93 63 589 152 Bowling average 30.72 31.96 27.72 29.98 5 wickets in innings 5 0 31 1 10 wickets in match 1 0 5 0 Best bowling 6/12 4/46 7/82 6/39 Catches/stumpings 6/– 8/– 71/– 26/–
Medal record Men's Cricket Representing  India ACC Asia Cup Winner 1990-91 India
Source: CricInfo, 4 February 2006

Back home in India, he helped India win the one-off Test against Sri Lanka in the only Test match played at the Sector 16 Stadium in Chandigarh. 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.^[2] He has played two World Cups for India in 1992 and 1996.

He last played a Test match against Australia in Calcutta, where he captured the wicket of Mark Waugh.

He continued playing for Hyderabad 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 Uttar Pradesh.

Early life

Venkatapathy Raju grew up in Hyderabad and attended The Hyderabad Public School, Ramanthapur in Hyderabad.

Raju is married to Uma Maheswari.^[3]

Present role

Raju was the vice president of Hyderabad Cricket Association.^[4] Earlier, he was the selector for Indian Cricket Team from the south zone during 2007–2008, when India won the ICC World T20 under MS Dhoni's captaincy. He worked as a Telugu commentator for Hotstar during the 2019 World Cup.

Role model status

Left-arm orthodox spinner Pragyan Ojha said in an interview that it was Raju that inspired him to play for India.^[5]

References

1. Vijay Lokapally (3 November 1993). "India in Sri Lanka, 1993-94 – Sri Lanka". Sportstar. ESPNcricinfo. Retrieved 20 November 2019.
2. Wisden reports of Sri Lanka's tour of India, 1990–91
3. "INDIAN CRICKET COUPLES". Retrieved 15 December 2022.
4. "Venkatapathy Raju: The man who changed his fortunes by switching over from a right-arm off-spinner to a left-arm spinner!". 9 July 2013. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
5. "Raju inspires Pragyan Ojha". Archived from the original on 10 August 2008. Retrieved 6 October 2008.

External links

• Interview of Venkatapathy Raju in CricketFundas.com
• Muscles of Might
• Interview of Venkatapathy Raju in Telangana Today