Raja Venkatraman (born 7 September 1958), better known as Raja Venkat, is a former Indian first-class

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by st ...

er and national team selector. He played for

Bengal cricket team The Bengal cricket team represents the Indian state of West Bengal in domestic first-class cricket. It is considered Eastern India's strongest cricket team. The team plays its home matches at the historic Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Bengal has wo ...

between the 1980/81 and 1991/92 seasons. He was part of the Indian team selection panel from 2008 to 2012.

Life and career

Venkatraman was born on 7 September 1958 in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the '' de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the sec ...

and brought up in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...

. His native is

Palakkad Palakkad (), formerly known as Palghat, historically known as Palakkattussery is a city and municipality in the Indian state of Kerala. It is the administrative headquarters of the Palakkad District. Palakkad is most densely populated municipal ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South C ...

. He played as an attacking left-handed batsman for Bengal and East Zone, appearing in 41 first-class and 8

List A List A cricket is a classification of the limited-overs (one-day) form of the sport of cricket, with games lasting up to eight hours. List A cricket includes One Day International (ODI) matches and various domestic competitions in which the numbe ...

matches between the 1980/81 and 1991/92. He was part of the Bengal team that won the

1989–90 Ranji Trophy The 1989–90 Ranji Trophy was the 56th season of the Ranji Trophy The Ranji Trophy (also known as Mastercard Ranji Trophy for sponsorship reasons) is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between multiple teams repres ...

as well as the one that finished runners-up in the previous season. He worked as junior selector for Bengal twice. He was part of the

Board of Control for Cricket in India The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is the national governing body for cricket in India. Its headquarters are situated at Cricket centre, Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The BCCI is the richest governing body of cricket in the world ...

media committee as well as museum committee. In 2008, he became a member of the Indian team selection panel, representing East Zone, for a term of four years. In 2015, he made revelations about the committee meetings during his tenure, causing a controversy.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Venkat, Raja 1958 births Living people Indian cricketers Bengal cricketers East Zone cricketers India national cricket team selectors Cricketers from Palakkad