V. K. Ramaswamy

Who is V. K. Ramaswamy?

Virinchirpuram Krishnamoorthi Ramaswamy is a former Indian Test cricket umpire.

Ramaswamy was born in Madras and worked for Indian Railways. He umpired in Indian domestic first-class matches from the early 1970s, including the finals of the Ranji Trophy in 1984, 1985, 1986, 1994, and 1997 and the final of the Duleep Trophy in 1991, 1998 and 1999. In the 1991 Duleep Trophy final, between North Zone and West Zone, he was criticised by Bishen Bedi for failing to defuse the tension between the sides which led to the game being abandoned after bowler Rashid Patel bowled a succession of bouncers and beamers at batsman Raman Lamba before seizing a stump and pursuing him to the third man boundary, with Lamba using his bat to fend off Patel's blows. Wisden described the incident at "the most shameful moment in the history of Indian cricket".

He umpired 26 Test matches between January 1985 to November 1999, and 43 ODIs between November 1983 and January 2002, mainly in India - only 7 of his Test matches were overseas.

He made his ODI debut as umpire in the match between India and West Indies at Moti Bagh Stadium, Vadodara, on 9 November 1983. He umpired in the 1987 Cricket World Cup and in the 1996 Cricket World Cup in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, including the match on 29 February 1996 in which Kenya unexpectedly beat West Indies by 73 runs, described by Wisden as "One of the biggest upsets in cricket history."[ref] His last ODI was the second between Pakistan and New Zealand at Barabati Stadium, Cuttack on 22 January 2002.