Krishnamachari Srikkanth

Krishnamachari Srikkanth (born 21 December 1959), also known as Cheeka, is an Indian former cricketer.

He was a hard-hitting opening batter and an occasional right arm offbreak bowler.

He has served as a captain of the Indian cricket team and chairman of the men's selection committee later.

Srikkanth was born on 21 December 1959 in Mylapore, Madras, Tamil Nadu to C.R. Krishnamachari and Indira Krishnamachari in a Tamil Brahmin family.

He has two siblings, brother Krishnamachari Srinath and sister Srekala Bharath.

He did his schooling from Vidya Mandir and completed his pre-university from Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College.

He graduated as an electrical engineer from College of Engineering, Guindy.

He made his first class debut during the 1978–79 season.

Srikkanth was the captain of the first ever youth test played by the India national under-19 cricket team in the 1978–79 season.

At the age of 21, He made his One Day International (ODI) debut against England in Ahmedabad on 25 November 1981.

Opening the batting with Sunil Gavaskar, he scored a duck and India lost by 5 wickets.

He made his Test debut two days later against England at Bombay.

Though he bagged another duck in the first innings and scored just 13 runs in the second innings, India won the match by 138 runs.

He was part of the Indian team that won the 1983 Cricket World Cup and top scored with 38 runs in the finals against the West Indies.

Srikkanth married Vidya on 30 March 1983.

They have two sons Adityaa and Anirudha, both of them are cricketers themselves.

Srikkanth represented Tamil Nadu and South zone in Indian domestic cricket.

He was part of the Indian cricket team that won the 1983 Cricket World Cup.

He opened the batting and scored 156 runs in the tournament.

In the final against West Indies, Srikkanth top-scored with 38 runs.

He was also a part of the Indian squad which won the 1985 World Championship of Cricket.

Known for his aggressive batting style, he has represented Tamil Nadu and South zone in Indian domestic cricket.

He serves as a cricket commentator.

He was also part of the Indian team that won the 1985 World Championship of Cricket.

He was the top scorer in the tournament with 238 runs.

India won the final after beating Pakistan where Srikkanth top scored with 77 runs from 66 balls and won the Man of the match award.

Srikkanth has his most prolific years in terms of runs from 1986 to 1988 when he scored two centuries in tests and four centuries in ODIs.

Srikkanth scored his first century in test cricket in the third test against Australia at Sydney on 2 January 1986.

His first ODI century came against Australia on 7 September 1986 in Jaipur.

He scored his second and last test century against the visiting Pakistan at his home ground at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai in February 1987.

He was also part of the Indian team that competed in the 1987 Cricket World Cup.

He scored 70 runs and took five wickets against New Zealand in an ODI match at Visakhapatnam on 10 December 1988.

In the process, he became the second person ever to record the feat of scoring a fifty and taking a five for in the same ODI match after Viv Richards.

In 1989, he was appointed captain of the captain of the Indian team.

Sachin Tendulkar made his debut under Srikkanth's captaincy in November 1989 against Pakistan.

He served as the captain of the test team for only four matches during the India's tour of Pakistan in 1990 and drew all the matches.

He also captained the Indian team in 13 ODIs winning four and losing eight.

Srikkanth played his last test match in February 1992 against Australia in Perth.

He scored 72 runs in the match and took five catches, all in the first innings setting a record for the most individual catches by a non wicket keeper in an innings of a test match.

In 2019, he was awarded the C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award by BCCI.