Umpire Ananthapadmanabhan Ranji Final

KN Ananthapadmanabhan, the man from the Agraharam in Thiruvananthapuram was the first Kerala player to top the milestone of 2000 runs and 200 wickets in Ranji Trophy. Through the 1990s, he consistently topped the wickets tally for his State. In just his second season in Ranji cricket, he broke into the top 5 wicket takers in domestic cricket  taking 30 wickets in just 5 games and very soon for the 3^rd time in four years, Ananthapadmanabhan was among the top 10 wicket takers in the domestic circuit, quite an achievement for a leggie in a phase when strong opposition such as TN and Karnataka piled up big scores against the minnows of South India. His performances led to a place in the Irani Trophy and Wills Trophy teams in 1993 where he made immediate impact.

The 2^nd half of that decade saw some extraordinary performances - 27 wickets and topping the batting charts with 597 runs including a double hundred and then topping both batting and bowling aggregate for Kerala a couple of years later. He also had a successful outing in the Challenger trophy in 1997-98 with an impressive 5 wicket haul against India Seniors. It was a phase when he came closest to being selected for India.  On the verge of national selection, Chief selector Ramakant Desai told him that it was a direct choice between Sairaj Bahutale and him and the scales tilted in favour of the former supposedly because of his better batting skills.

In March 98, Ananthapadmanabhan playing for India A prized out the scalps of Steve Waugh, Ponting and Lehmann against the touring Aussies. Within the next 12 months, he bagged a 5 wicket haul against Pakistan in front of his home fans in Kochi. However, when Kumble got his 10 wicket haul, Ananthapadmanabhan decided that it was curtains for him and his dream of playing for India was sealed as Kumble then became a permanent fixture in the team.

He played for IOB in the Madras first division league for 15 years and it  was under his captaincy that IOB won (another BCCI umpire Rajesh Kannan too played under him in that glorious phase for IOB) the Palayampatti shield in the 1990s.

Towards the tail end of his career, after he had lost hopes of a national call, he got 38 wickets in the Ranji season from 7 games and helping Kerala qualify for the Elite Group. He was the first player from Kerala to play over a 100 matches and took close to 350 wickets. With a little more luck, he could have easily played for India in the 1990s.

KN Ananthapadmanabhan will, later this week, officiate in his first Ranji Trophy Final over a dozen years after he made his BCCI umpiring debut. In his first Ranji match as an umpire, he gave 13 decisions prompting his partner S Ravi (http://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2013/08/s-ravi-set-for-umpiring-test-debut.html) to remark that he was bagging wickets like he was as a bowler (Ravi will be one of his partners - 3rd Umpire - in his Ranji Final Debut as well). 

Ananthapadmanabhan had in December 2016 umpired the Ranji Trophy semi final between Gujarat and Jharkhand along with JR Madanagopal (they both passed the exam in the same year). Three years ago, Ananthapadmanabhan was the 3^rd umpire in the Ranji final between Bombay and Gujarat in Pune. He has since shot up into the top 5 umpires in India but like he was during his playing days, he remains firmly grounded. 13 years and 75 first class matches into his umpiring career, he says that he is still learning and feels that staying in the present moment is very important in umpiring.

Recently, in an exchange programme between the BCCI and the South African Cricket Board, Ananthapadmanabhan went to South Africa for a 3 match (first class matches) engagement, umpiring domestic cricket there officiating at Johannesburg, Capetown and Durban.

With umpire Brad White and Anish Rajan
(Chief consulate, Durban)

He views this exchange programme as a great initiative by the BCCI to send umpires overseas “It was a good experience as the 3 centers had different types of wickets. Jo’burg had pace and bounce, Capetown was more suited for batsmen and Durban assisted spinners as the match progressed.”

He worked with 3 partners who had earlier officiated in India as part of their exchange program. Ananthapadmanabhan had umpired with 2 of them in India and the matches in South Africa helped build that relationship.

Ananthapadmanabhan is pleased with the progress he has made over the last few years especially the experience gained in umpiring in the IPL where he has officiated in over 20 matches onfield and been a 3^rdumpired in over 10 matches “IPL has given me a real idea of handling high pressure on a big stage standing alongside top umpires and watching the top international umpires going about the whole process.” 

Having got into umpiring (motivated early on by TNCA umpire Gururajan) soon after he retired from playing, Ananthapadmanabhan has reached the summit in domestic cricket and is all set to step on to the field on Monday morning ( the start of the Ranji Final). He is confident of making it into the next big stage in umpiring and sees breaking into the international panel as the next leap in his umpiring career. With the way the last few years have gone, it will be a matter of time before this once top leggie from Kerala makes it on the international stage in Umpiring.