Autograph - Gundappa Viswanath (Cricket)

Gundappa Ranganath Viswanath (born 12 February 1949) is a former Indian cricketer. He was one of India's finest batsmen throughout the 1970s. Viswanath played Test cricket for India from 1969 to 1983 making 91 appearances and scoring over 6000 runs. He also played in One Day Internationals from 1974 to 1982 including the World Cups of 1975 and 1979.

On his Test match debut, Viswanath scored a century against Australia at Kanpur in 1969 in a drawn match. He also recorded a duck in the same game, one of only four batsmen to have done this in their first match. Viswanath is one of three players to score a century in both his first class and Test debuts. He scored 13 more centuries in his Test career and none of them came in a match that was lost.

Viswanath also had a brief stint as the Indian captain in 1979–80. In the two Tests he captained, one was drawn and one was lost, the latter being the Golden Jubilee Test against England. Throughout his career, Viswanath was renowned for his sense of fair-play, and in this match he recalled Bob Taylor to the crease after the umpire had already given him out. Taylor went on to score some vital runs for England helping them to win the match.

Viswanath was awarded Col. C K Naidu Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009 by BCCI which is one of the highest awards given in Indian cricket. He also received the Arjuna award in the year 1977-78.

Career statistics

Competition Tests ODIs Matches  91 25 Runs scored 6080 439 Batting average 41.93 19.95 100s/50s 14/35 0/2 Top score 222 75 Balls bowled 70 – Wickets 1 – Bowling average 46.00 – 5 wickets in innings 0 – 10 wickets in match 0 n/a Best bowling 1/11 – Catches/stumpings 63/- 3/-

Source: CricInfo, 4 February 2006