Digging deep into the history of cricket and coming out with some fascinating “shorts” has become a passion for C. Venkatesh, well-known sports analyst and a die-hard cricket fan from Hyderabad. Exploring a rare facet of cricket, Mr. Venkatesh says he has chosen the short and sweet format of anecdotes and curious facts for the third edition of the very popular Bits And Pieces book.
“I believe this approach resonates well with modern readers,” he told The Hindu. “There are countless fascinating tales to tell about this wonderful game, and my book covers only a small portion of them,” he says, adding: “Like India being bowled out twice in a day in a Test match in 1952 against England (58 and 82); M.L. Jaisimha becoming the first cricketer to bat on all five days in a Test in 1960 against Australia in Kolkata; India never losing a Test match when the great Gundappa Viswanath scored 14 Test centuries, winning four and drawing 10.”
With a foreword by author Ramachandra Guha, Mr. Venkatesh clearly took a different path to reach out to cricket lovers with some terrific anecdotes and interesting statistics, too. They include One Test Wonders XI led by Robin Singh, Missed Test XI by Amol Mozumdar and Missed World Cup XI led by V.V.S. Laxman.
“When England off-spinner Jim Laker took 19 wickets in a Test match, all he got was 10 Pounds per wicket as incentive by a printing firm Thomas de La Rue,” Mr. Venkatesh recalls. “Our own Hyderabadi V.V.S. Laxman scored that epic 281 against Australia in the 2001 Kolkata Test with a borrowed bat from fellow Hyderabadi and left-arm spinner S.L. Venkatapathi Raju,” he says with a big smile.
“There are little known facts like Brian Lara’s car having the number 375, the same he scored to beat Sir Garfield Sobers’ record of highest individual score in a Test match,” Mr. Venkatesh said. The third edition of the book will be formally released by former IPS Officer V.V. Lakshminarayana on December 16.
Published – December 12, 2024 06:50 pm IST
