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 77) Madras, India
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm off-spin
Relations	Vidyut Sivaramakrishnan (nephew), V. Sivaramakrishan (brother)
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1975/76–1979/80	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 – 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

For some years Ramnarayan was a regular columnist for Cricinfo, and he edited Sruti, a monthly performing arts magazine, from 2006 to 2018. He has taught writing at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai since 2006. He has also translated books from Tamil into English.^[8][9]

In 2015 he published a memoir of his first-class cricket career, Third Man: Recollections from a Life in Cricket.^[10][11] 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)