Cricket Diaries

It’s amidst the excitement of the Test Match between India and England that we meet Kuncha Parthasarathy, former International cricket umpire and Secretary of the Visakhapatnam District Cricket Association. Expressing his delight at the first Test Match being held in the city, he shares that cricket as a game has come far in more ways than one.

- K Parthasarathy

The game of cricket was never a planned move for K Parthasarathy, a native of Visakhapatnam. Coming from a joint family, he too like his father, went on to become a bank employee. With that being his professional destiny, passion had cricket in store for him. As a result, even though he retired from State Bank of India as a Manager, he still continues his association with the game of cricket. ‘I started playing cricket at the age of fifteen’ he says reminiscing the early days, adding that families back then weren’t very particular about what the children did, whether it was academics or sports. ‘Those were the 1960s and the game wasn’t half as popular’ he shares, infact, in those days football was the preferred game of choice. It was, however, a group of his seniors that brought cricket lovers together. They formed the Metro Cricket Club, one of the city’s earliest cricket clubs. The young cricket buffs would assemble after 3PM every day to play. Summers back then were pleasant and cool, unlike today, and vacations offered these enthused children the perfect opportunity to play together. And though there wasno proper play ground that was never a deterrent for these determined kids who would get together at the Port Gymkhana ground. While the ground doesn’t exist today, having given way to a storage facility, it was the place of choice back then.