Gundappa Viswanath Profile

Full Name: Gundappa Rangnath Viswanath
Born: February 12, 1949, Bhadravati, Mysore
Major teams: India, Karnataka, Mysore
Batting style: Right-hand bat
Bowling style: Leg break

Achievements:

Gundappa Rangnath Viswanath, fondly known as Vishy, has been one of the finest batsmen India has ever produced. He was famous for his beautiful style of playing which concentrated more upon timing and art rather than power. Square Cut was one of the Viswanath’s favorite shots, that he executed against the fast bowlers a lot. In fact, Viswanath was known to be more of an artist than a run-making robot.

Cricket Career at a Glance
He began his Test Cricket career in the year 1969 in a match played against Australia at Kanpur. In the first innings he scored a duck, while in the second innings of the same match he was the highest scorer for India with 137 runs, although the match was a draw. Viswanath played his first ODI match against England on 13th of July, 1974 at the Leeds Cricket Ground, in which he scored just 4 runs. Incidentally, he played his last ODI match against England itself at the same Leeds Cricket Ground on 2nd of June, 1982. In this match he scored 9 runs.

Vital Statistics
In his overall Test Cricket career, Gundappa Viswanath played 91 matches and scored a total of 6080 runs including 14 centuries and 35 half-centuries with a Batting Average of 41.93 runs. His highest score in Test Cricket was 222 runs.

Similarly, in One Day International (ODI) Cricket, he played 25 matches in which he managed to score a total of 439 runs with a Batting Average of 19.95 runs. He scored no century during his ODI career, although he managed to score 2 half-centuries.

Viswanath’s Cricket was at its epitome in the decade of 1970’s, and he was as vital to the success of Indian Cricket during that period as Sunil Gavaskar himself.

Days of Captaincy
He also served the Indian Cricket team as its Captain for a short period during 1979-80. During the tenure, he led the Indian Cricket team to 2 Test matches, of which 1 was lost by India and the other was a draw. As a Cricket player and a Captain too, Viswanath was famous for his honesty and Fair-Game policy throughout his career.

Other Achievements
Viswanath retired from Test Cricket in the year 1983, and continued to work as an ICC Match Refree during the years 1999-2004. He was also named the Chairman of the National Selection Committee, and the Manager of the Indian Cricket team for some time. For his contribution to the Indian Cricket, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) honoured Gundappa Viswanath with Col. C.K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award in the year 2009.