V. K. Ramaswamy
Encyclopedia
Virinchirpuram Krishnamoorthi Ramaswamy (born 26 April 1945) is a former India
n Test
cricket
umpire
.
Ramaswamy was born in Madras and worked for Indian Railways
. He umpired in Indian domestic first-class matches
from the early 1970s, including the finals of the Ranji Trophy
in 1984, 1985, 1986, 1994, and 1997 and the final of the Duleep Trophy
in 1991, 1998 and 1999. In the 1991 Duleep Trophy final, between North Zone
and West Zone
, he was criticised by Bishen Bedi for failing to defuse the tension between the sides which led to the game being abandoned after bowler Rashid Patel
bowled a succession of bouncers
and beamer
s at batsman Raman Lamba
before seizing a stump
and pursuing him to the third man boundary, with Lamba using his bat to fend off Patel's blows. Wisden
describbed the incident at "the most shameful moment in the history of Indian cricket".
He umpired 26 Test matches
between January 1985 to November 1999, and 43 ODIs between November 1983 and January 2002, mainly in India - only 7 of his Test matches were overseas.
He made his ODI debut as umpire in the match between India and West Indies at Moti Bagh Stadium
, Vadodara
, on 9 November 1983.http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/44/44153.html He umpired in the 1987 Cricket World Cup
and in the 1996 Cricket World Cup
in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, including the match on 29 February 1996 in which Kenya unexpectedly beat West Indies by 73 runs, described by Wisden as "One of the biggest upsets in cricket history."[ref] His last ODI was the second between Pakistan and New Zealand at Barabati Stadium
, Cuttack
on 22 January 2002.http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/73/73887.html
He made his Test umpiring debut in January 1985, in the fourth Test between India and England at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Madras,http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/45/45530.html and was hailed by Wisden as a "top-class umpire".http://www.cricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/151943.html He stood regularly in Test matches in India until 1988, and also in the second and third Tests in Pakistan in November 1986 between Pakistan and West Indies. The first of these matches was the first to have two neutral umpires - Ramaswamy and fellow Indian umpire, Piloo Reporter - since English umpires presided over Triangular Tests between Australia
and South Africa
in 1912.
With Ram Babu Gupta, he umpired the 5th Test between India and Pakistan at Bangalore in March 1987 - Sunil Gavaskar
's last Test match. Having reached 96 in the second innings, with the score at 180-7 chasing 221 to win, Ramaswamy gave Sunil Gavaskar out, caught at slip by Rizwan-uz-Zaman
off the bowling of Iqbal Qasim
. Pakistan quickly won the match by 16 runs. Gavaskar later remarked that the match may have turned out differently if veteran Indian umpire Swaroop Kishen
had been standing.http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=SGgr3sdWrWoC&pg=PA195&dq=Swaroop+Kishen&as_brr=3#v=onepage&q=&f=false
After his 12th Test as umpire, the second Test between India and New Zealand at Wankhede Stadium
, Bombay in November 1988,http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/50/50663.html there was a hiatus of more than 4 years before he returned as umpire in the second Test between India and England in February 1993, in Madras.http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/56/56964.html In 1994, he and Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan
were the two Indians on the first international panel of umpires
, set up by the ICC
to ensure that one neutral umpire would stand in every Test match (later supplemented by the Elite Panel of ICC Umpires).http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket-bird-launches-initiative-1406868.html His final Test was the third Test between India and New Zealand at Sardar Patel Stadium
, Ahmedabad
, in October 1999.http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/68/68535.html
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n Test
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
umpire
Umpire (cricket)
In cricket, an umpire is a person who has the authority to make judgements on the cricket field, according to the Laws of Cricket...
.
Ramaswamy was born in Madras and worked for Indian Railways
Indian Railways
Indian Railways , abbreviated as IR , is a departmental undertaking of Government of India, which owns and operates most of India's rail transport. It is overseen by the Ministry of Railways of the Government of India....
. He umpired in Indian domestic first-class matches
First-class cricket
First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...
from the early 1970s, including the finals of the Ranji Trophy
Ranji Trophy
The Ranji Trophy is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between different city and state sides, equivalent to the County Championship in England and the Sheffield Shield in Australia...
in 1984, 1985, 1986, 1994, and 1997 and the final of the Duleep Trophy
Duleep Trophy
The Duleep Trophy is a domestic first-class cricket competition played in India between teams representing geographical zones of India. The competition is named after Kumar Shri Duleepsinhji .-History:...
in 1991, 1998 and 1999. In the 1991 Duleep Trophy final, between North Zone
North Zone cricket team
The North Zone cricket team is a first-class cricket team that represents northern India in the Duleep Trophy. It is a composite team of players from six first-class Indian teams from northern India competing in the Ranji Trophy: Delhi, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and...
and West Zone
West Zone cricket team
The West Zone cricket team is a first-class cricket team that represents western India in the Duleep Trophy. It is a composite team of players from five first-class Indian teams from western India competing in the Ranji Trophy: Baroda, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Mumbai and Saurashtra...
, he was criticised by Bishen Bedi for failing to defuse the tension between the sides which led to the game being abandoned after bowler Rashid Patel
Rashid Patel
Rashid Ghulam Mohammed Patel was a left arm fast bowler who represented India in cricket. He played for Baroda between 1986–87 and 1996-97 in domestic cricket....
bowled a succession of bouncers
Bouncer (cricket)
In the sport of cricket, a bouncer is a type of delivery, usually bowled by a fast bowler. It is pitched short so that it bounces on the pitch well short of the batsman and rears up to chest or head height as it reaches the batsman.Bouncers are used tactically to drive the batsman back on to his...
and beamer
Beamer (cricket)
In the terminology of the game of cricket, a beamer is a type of delivery in which the ball , without bouncing, passes above the batsman's waist height. Such a ball is often dangerously close to the batsman's head, due to the lack of control a bowler has over high full tosses...
s at batsman Raman Lamba
Raman Lamba
Raman Lamba was an Indian cricketer who played in four Tests and 32 One Day Internationals, mainly as a batsman died in the Post Graduate Hospital in Dhaka in Bangladesh after three days of vain efforts by a team of doctors, ever since he was seriously hit on the forehead by a full blooded pull...
before seizing a stump
Stump
In its most general sense, stump is an English word. It may refer to:*Tree stump, the rooted remains of a felled tree*Stump, the remains of a limb after amputation...
and pursuing him to the third man boundary, with Lamba using his bat to fend off Patel's blows. Wisden
Wisden
The Wisden Group was a group of companies formed by John Wisden & Co Ltd, publishers of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack. As well as John Wisden & Co, the group included the The Wisden Cricketer magazine, Cricinfo – the world's highest traffic cricket website – and the Hawk-Eye computerised...
describbed the incident at "the most shameful moment in the history of Indian cricket".
He umpired 26 Test matches
Test cricket
Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
between January 1985 to November 1999, and 43 ODIs between November 1983 and January 2002, mainly in India - only 7 of his Test matches were overseas.
He made his ODI debut as umpire in the match between India and West Indies at Moti Bagh Stadium
Moti Bagh Stadium
Moti Bagh Stadium is a cricket stadium located in Vadodara , Gujarat. The ground form part of the Lakshmi Vilas Palace building complex - a spawling complex in the heart of the city. The palace and the stadium, earlied belonged to the former rulers of Baroda and the patrons of cricket in Baroda -...
, Vadodara
Vadodara
Vadodara formerly known as Baroda is the third most populated city in the Indian State of Gujarat . It is one of the four cities with the population of over 1 million...
, on 9 November 1983.http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/44/44153.html He umpired in the 1987 Cricket World Cup
1987 Cricket World Cup
The 1987 Cricket World Cup was the fourth edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup tournament. It was held from October 8 to November 8, 1987 in India and Pakistan — the first held outside England. The format was unchanged from 1983 except for a reduction in the number of overs a team played from 60...
and in the 1996 Cricket World Cup
1996 Cricket World Cup
The 1996 Cricket World Cup, also called the Wills World Cup after its official sponsors, was the sixth edition of the tournament organized by the International Cricket Council . It was the second World Cup to be hosted by Pakistan and India, and for the first time by Sri Lanka...
in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, including the match on 29 February 1996 in which Kenya unexpectedly beat West Indies by 73 runs, described by Wisden as "One of the biggest upsets in cricket history."[ref] His last ODI was the second between Pakistan and New Zealand at Barabati Stadium
Barabati Stadium
The Barabati Stadium is a cricket venue in the east Indian city of Cuttack, Orissa. It is home ground of Orissa cricket team and is operated by Orissa Cricket Association. The Barabati Stadium is one of the older grounds in India, having hosted several touring sides – including the MCC, the West...
, Cuttack
Cuttack
Cuttack is the former capital of the state of Orissa, India. It is the headquarters of Cuttack district and is located about 20 km to the north east of Bhubaneswar, the capital of Orissa. The name of the city is an anglicised form of Kataka that literally means The Fort, a reference to the...
on 22 January 2002.http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/73/73887.html
He made his Test umpiring debut in January 1985, in the fourth Test between India and England at the MA Chidambaram Stadium, Madras,http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/45/45530.html and was hailed by Wisden as a "top-class umpire".http://www.cricinfo.com/wisdenalmanack/content/story/151943.html He stood regularly in Test matches in India until 1988, and also in the second and third Tests in Pakistan in November 1986 between Pakistan and West Indies. The first of these matches was the first to have two neutral umpires - Ramaswamy and fellow Indian umpire, Piloo Reporter - since English umpires presided over Triangular Tests between Australia
Australian cricket team
The Australian cricket team is the national cricket team of Australia. It is the joint oldest team in Test cricket, having played in the first Test match in 1877...
and South Africa
South African cricket team
The South African national cricket team represent South Africa in international cricket. They are administrated by Cricket South Africa.South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council, also known as ICC, with Test and One Day International, or ODI, status...
in 1912.
With Ram Babu Gupta, he umpired the 5th Test between India and Pakistan at Bangalore in March 1987 - Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Gavaskar
Sunil Manohar "Sunny" Gavaskar is a former cricketer who played during the 1970s and 1980s for Bombay and India. Widely regarded as one of the greatest opening batsmen in cricket history, Gavaskar set world records during his career for the most Test runs and most Test centuries scored by any...
's last Test match. Having reached 96 in the second innings, with the score at 180-7 chasing 221 to win, Ramaswamy gave Sunil Gavaskar out, caught at slip by Rizwan-uz-Zaman
Rizwan-uz-Zaman
Rizwan-uz-Zaman Khan is a former Pakistani cricketer who played in 11 Tests and 3 ODIs from 1981 to 1989....
off the bowling of Iqbal Qasim
Iqbal Qasim
Mohammad Iqbal Qasim is a former Pakistani cricketer who played in 50 Tests and 15 ODIs from 1976 to 1988.Qasim ended his career with 171 wickets in his 50 Test matches, at approximately 3.5 wickets a match. His accurate bowling saw his economy rate at a low 2.21...
. Pakistan quickly won the match by 16 runs. Gavaskar later remarked that the match may have turned out differently if veteran Indian umpire Swaroop Kishen
Swaroop Kishen
Swaroop Kishen Reu was an Indian Test cricket umpire. His name is sometimes spelled "Swarup Kishan".He was born in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir. He played cricket as a wicketkeeper batsman at Delhi University...
had been standing.http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=SGgr3sdWrWoC&pg=PA195&dq=Swaroop+Kishen&as_brr=3#v=onepage&q=&f=false
After his 12th Test as umpire, the second Test between India and New Zealand at Wankhede Stadium
Wankhede Stadium
The Sheshrao Krushnarao Wankhede Stadium is a cricket stadium in the Indian city of Mumbai. This ground was built after disputes between the Cricket Club of India, which owns the Brabourne Stadium, and the Mumbai Cricket Association over the allocation of tickets for cricket matches...
, Bombay in November 1988,http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/50/50663.html there was a hiatus of more than 4 years before he returned as umpire in the second Test between India and England in February 1993, in Madras.http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/56/56964.html In 1994, he and Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan
Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan
Srinivasaraghavan Venkataraghavan ; is a former Indian cricketer. He played for Derbyshire in English county cricket from 1973 to 1975. He played Test cricket for the Indian cricket team, and later became an umpire on the elite International Cricket Council Test panel...
were the two Indians on the first international panel of umpires
International Panel of Umpires and Referees
The International Panel of ICC Umpires was established by the ICC in 1994 following trial in 1992/3, to ensure that one neutral umpire would stand in every Test match. It is made up of officials nominated from each of the ten Test playing cricket boards...
, set up by the ICC
International Cricket Council
The International Cricket Council is the international governing body of cricket. It was founded as the Imperial Cricket Conference in 1909 by representatives from England, Australia and South Africa, renamed the International Cricket Conference in 1965, and took up its current name in 1989.The...
to ensure that one neutral umpire would stand in every Test match (later supplemented by the Elite Panel of ICC Umpires).http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/cricket-bird-launches-initiative-1406868.html His final Test was the third Test between India and New Zealand at Sardar Patel Stadium
Sardar Patel Stadium
Sardar Patel Stadium is one of the premier Cricket stadiums of India located in the Motera locality of Ahmedabad. Because of its location, the stadium is commonly called Motera Stadium to avoid confusion with another stadium of the same name in Navrangpura locality of Ahmedabad. Sardar Patel...
, Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...
, in October 1999.http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/68/68535.html