Venkatapathy Raju is a former Indian cricketer. He rose to prominence in the Indian cricket arena in 1989-90 after grabbing 32 wickets in a domestic tournament. He made his debut in Test and One Day International in the tour of New Zealand. In his first test innings, he continued batting for over two hours for 31 runs on contrary to six wickets that fell at the other end.
Early Life of Venkatapathy Raju
Venkatapathy Raju was born on 9th July 1969. He was brought up in the city of Hyderabad. He completed his schooling from a catholic convent boys school All Saints` High School. The same school was also attended by Indian cricketers like Mohammad Azharuddin and Noel David.
Career of Venkatapathy Raju
In the year 1990 Venkatapathy Raju became a part of the Indian team in England. However in the match against Gloucestershire, he got the knuckle of his left hand broken by Courtney Walsh. The unfortunate incident put an end to his tour. After returning to India, Venkatapathy Raju played a key role in helping the country to win the one-off Test against Sri Lanka during the only Test match played at the Sector 16 Stadium in Chandigarh. He was however the last minute selection in the team. On the second day of the match he turned down the middle order of Sri Lanka by capturing 5 wickets for two runs in 39 balls. On the next day he grabbed one more wicket and ended with 6 for 12 in 17.5 overs during which four batsmen failed to score at all. His splendid performance earned him the only man of the match award of his international career.
Venkatapathy Raju has also been a part of two world cups in 1992 and 1996. His last Test match was in Kolkata against Australia in which he bagged the crucial wicket of Mark Waugh. In the following several years he played for Hyderabad including the final of 1999-2000 Ranji Trophy. In December 2004 he announced his retirement from cricket following a domestic match against Uttar Pradesh. Presently Venkatapathy Raju serves as the vice president of the Hyderabad Cricket Association. From 2007 to 2008, when India won the ICC World T20 under Dhoni`s captaincy, he used to work as the selector for Indian cricket team from south zone.
