Former India umpire V Vikramraju – one of the two officials in the famous tied Test between India and Australia at Chepauk in 1986 – died in Bengaluru on Sunday. He was 92.
Across a modest international career – two Tests, five one-day internationals and 42 first-class games – it is that September five-dayer at the MA Chidambaram Stadium that still jumps off the page. Only the second tied Test in the game’s history (the first came at Brisbane in 1960), the match remains woven into cricket folklore.
“It is with profound grief and deep sorrow that the President and the Managing Committee of the Karnataka State Cricket Association (KSCA) mourn the demise of Vikramraju, former International Umpire,” the KSCA said. “He served the game of cricket with great distinction and integrity over several decades. As an umpire, he earned recognition at the highest levels of the sport.”
The decisive moment came late on the last afternoon when Vikramraju ruled No. 11 Maninder Singh lbw to Greg Matthews. India finished 347 all out, a single run shy of the 348 target; the scores were level, wickets gone, hands shaken. Dara Dotiwalla, the senior partner in the middle, once recalled how the ground “went silent for a split second before realising what had happened”.
Greg Matthews later told ABC Radio that the tie was “the most exhausting yet exhilarating five days of cricket I’ve known”. Kapil Dev, India’s captain then, has often said: “I didn’t realise it was a tie until someone pointed at the scoreboard.”
Criticism inevitably followed – the lbw call split opinion – yet Vikramraju rarely engaged with the noise. Friends say he viewed mistakes, real or perceived, as part of an umpire’s apprenticeship.
After hanging up the white coat he became a match referee, overseeing four first-class fixtures and several seasons of the Karnataka Premier League, now rebadged as the KSCA Maharaja T20 Trophy. Those who worked with him describe a calm presence, fond of checking the young umpires’ positioning rather than lecturing from a distance.
Vikramraju is survived by his wife and two children. The family have asked for privacy while they “celebrate a life spent on, and in love with, cricket”.
