Vijayakumar, Vijayakrishna and Lakshman: The unsung heroes

Bengaluru: This is a story from half a century ago. It’s not a story which sees the light of day often but every once in a while the cobwebs need to be dealt with for without this moment during the 1973-74 Ranji Trophy season, Karnataka may not have become what it has become: a giant in domestic cricket.

There were numerous protagonists in this tale of Karnataka winning their maiden first-class title, some of whom belong in cricket’s Hall of Fame. This perspective, however, involves three lesser-known characters who are no more.

VS Vijayakumar, B Vijayakrishna and K Lakshman passed away within a few years of each other and had lost touch with each other for a few years before that, but they remain connected to this day in the scorecards of yore and anecdotes of their surviving team-mates. 

Let’s get one thing out of the way, these were not world-class players. That honour was reserved for the likes of GR Vishwanath, Brijesh Patel, BS Chandrasekhar, Erappalli Prasanna and Syed Kirmani.

These three men, however, were the workhorses without whom it’s quite possible that Karnataka would not have realised a dream that season. These were men who were willing to downplay their skills, their personalities and their greatness for the greater good of the team.

Vijayakumar was an opening batter and a new-ball bowler.

Vijayakrishna was a left-arm spinner and a more-than-handy batter in the middle/ lower-order.

And then there’s Lakshman. He was a left-arm spinner about whom little is known, save for the fact that he was among the oldest in the team at the time.

These were also three rather contrasting characters.

They were not up to much during the semifinals against Mumbai, but then again the rest of the team was in fine enough fettle to overthrow the defending champions. In the final, though, they left their mark.

Vijayakumar scored a crucial 66 in the first innings against Rajasthan in Jaipur and picked up four wickets before adding 23 runs in the second innings and finishing with figures of 8-2-13-1 in the second innings.

Vijayakrishna may not have done much all game long, but his 71 in the first-innings defined the tempo of the game.

Lakshman did his bit when he got the chance to bowl, giving away a mere 10 runs from 13 overs, including six maidens.

They had roles to play. They played them. Karnataka won by 185 runs.

“Vijayakumar was an exceptional talent at the top, and we used to use him as the shine-remover (laughs),” says Sudhakar Rao. “When you have guys like Prasanna and Chandra, you only need the others to complement them so that’s what those three did, and they never complained about it. And all three of them were so tight. Whenever we gave Prasanna or Chandra a break, these guys would not let the batsmen get away, get into a rhythm, nothing.

“Vijaykrishna, especially, was just brilliant. Forget about him, he was one of those cricketers who could do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. It’s so funny because Pras (the captain) would bring - say Vijayakumar - on and then say ‘thanks Viji, we got it from here’ after only a short spell. We would all just smile because it was all taken in such good spirit.”

Prasanna recalled Vijayakrishna fondly. “When I first saw Vijayakrishna at the YMCA ground, he used to bowl left-arm wrist spin. I don't know why he changed to conventional left-arm spin, but he was quite impressive. It's so unfortunate that he had to play when we (Prasanna and Chandrasekhar) were around,” said the Test legend. 

“I couldn't give him the number of overs he deserved to bowl because myself and Chandra were running through the sides most of the time. But I remember he played a brilliant knock (71) in the final in Jaipur alongside Jayaprakash (55) and there was a time when the Karnataka selection committee wanted to drop these two.

“I can proudly say now I fought for them because I knew their strength and had a lot of confidence in their abilities. They lived up to expectations,” he added.

They all did.