Gopalakrishna, an epitome of passion, perseverance in cricket scoring
Like cricketers, he also achieved a rare ‘double’, becoming only the second statistician to complete 100 international fixtures and complete 50 years in the field
Hyderabad: Far away from the UK where India and England are locked in an absorbing Test series, a gentleman-scorer HR Gopalakrishna from Bengaluru has been quietly composing some of the statistics which otherwise would not be known to the cricketing world.
So, when the 79-year-old Gopalakrishna is now applying for the Padma Sri for his contribution to cricket, he may not be faulted, given the selfless passion for the demanding job of keeping track of every important milestone in cricket across the world.
“I feel we scorers-statisticians should also be recognised for our silent efforts,” he says in a chat with ‘Telangana Today’.
Like cricketers, he also achieved a rare ‘double’, becoming only the second statistician to complete 100 international fixtures and complete 50 years in the field.
Well, in the golden jubilee year of his profession, well-known cricket statistician Gopalakrishna has every reason to look back with a sense of pride, having witnessed the evolution of scoring from the days of manual collection of data to the now technological advances with the same ease.
Widely acknowledged as a perfectionist and someone whose passion is as pure as gold, this statistician first started scoring in 1973-74.
By all means, it is never easy to stick to a passion which is clearly a thankless job for a statistician who rarely gets the recognition due to him. And, it was not surprising when Gopalakrishna had to stop scoring for close to nine months when his mother-in-law felt it would be better for him to focus on family than on these statistics! But, he was back soon to where he belonged, literally.
“In the era of manual compilation, updating was a big task. Luckily, I had kept all the scorecards of the matches played all over the world,” says the graduate in Electrical Engineering.
A regular contributor to the prestigious Wisden Cricket Monthly (UK), David Lord’s Wisden Cricket Monthly (Australia), and The Cricketer (Pakistan), he was also on the panel of scorers for Doordarshan for a long time. This gentleman still continues to come up with some interesting statistics.
He is the only cricket Statistician in the country to be bestowed with two State awards – Dasara Kreeda Prashasthi and Rajyotsava Prashasti for contribution to cricket through Cricket Statistics.
He founded his own hrgcricstats.com dedicated to late Sri Anandji Dossa, doyen of cricket statisticians in India.
For the record, he officiated as statistician in 105 international fixtures and 61 ODIs, 38 Tests (after his Test ‘debut’ in the 1974-75 West Indies-India Test series, which saw the great Sir Viv Richards make his debut).
Not surprisingly, Gopalakrishna was a regular contributor to www.stumpvision.com, hosted by the Kumble brothers.
A decent left-arm spinner in his playing days and a qualified umpire, he is now hoping to see a few more moments to cherish!
