Krishnamachari Srikkanth

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Krishnamachari Srikkanth Biography

With his peculiar stance with the legs spread in a half split, and his intent to belt every ball, Krishnamachari Srikkanth was a crowd favourite.
Especially with the shift in interest towards ODI, Srikkanth’s exploits at the top of the order, the penchant for big hits right from the go, and the top-score of 38 in the epochal Prudential Cup final, did make him a superstar. He also threw himself about in the field, one of the very first Indians to do so.

Yet, while his supporters maintained that he could destroy the strongest of attacks, the career he eked out was more miss than hit, and a great study in the laws of chance.

He ended up averaging 29 in both formats of the game, managing just 2 hundreds in 42 Tests, both on featherbeds. He did score two fifties against the fearsome West Indian bowlers, but averaged a similar 29 against them, and when appointed vice-captain for the West Indian tour of 1988-89, had his arm broken by Ian Bishop.

In ODIs, he had his share of memorable innings, with a couple of hundreds against West Indies, a sequence of good scores in the Benson & Hedges World Championship of Cricket in Australia in 1985 and a swashbuckling century at Eden Gardens against Imran Khan and Wasim Akram. However, there were plenty of low scores between the occasional substantial innings and his end numbers remained mediocre. For all the claims of tearing fast bowling apart, he managed an average of 24.48 against West Indies.

His best Test series was against New Zealand in 1988-89, when he achieved consistency and was named Man of the Series. In the ODIs on the same tour his apparently innocuous off-breaks came into play, when he became the first Indian to take two ODI five-fors.

With India vanquished in West Indies after that and Dilip Vengsarkar falling foul of the selectors, Srikkanth was handed the captaincy in 1989, and led 4 Tests against Pakistan. The series ended in a 0-0 draw, but the captain was tormented by Wasim, managing 97 runs at 13.85. He lost the captaincy and his place in the side. A subsequent tour of Australia in the early 1990s was equally disappointing and a dismal World Cup campaign spelled the end of his career.

When he ended his career, Srikkanth had the most runs (4,091) and centuries (4, tied with Ravi Shastri) for India in ODIs. However, Indian ODI numbers remained dismal till early 1990s before Sachin Tendulkar changed every equation. However, even if adjusted for his day and era, Srikkanth’s strike rate of 71 reads rather less than remarkable for someone hailed as a hitter. It ranks only 27th even if we consider only the ODIs played till his retirement.

An ignored aspect of Srikkanth’s game was his useful off-spin, which could be extremely effective in ODIs. In fact, twice he claimed 5 wickets in an innings in that format.

Later Srikkanth became a rather garrulous but popular television commentator and, down the line, a selector. His son Anirudh played First-Class cricket and in the IPL, while Aditya, his other son, has played age-group cricket.

Arunabha Sengupta

Krishnamachari Srikkanth Batting & Fielding Averages

Career

Avg

100s

50s

Test

ODIs

T20s

World Cup

Krishnamachari Srikkanth Bowling Averages

Career	M	B	R	W	Avg	EC	SR	5WI	10WM	BBI	BBM
Test	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
ODIs	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
T20s	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--
World Cup	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	--	0/8	--