Sadanand Viswanath () (born 28 November 1962,

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

) is a former

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er who played in 3

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and 22 ODIs, from 1985 to 1988. Currently, he is a first class umpire and coach. He was a part of the Indian squad which won the 1985

World Championship of Cricket The Benson & Hedges World Championship of Cricket was part of the celebrations commemorating the 150th anniversary of European settlement in the Australian state of Victoria. It was a One Day International (ODI) tournament held in Australia f ...

Career

Vishy gained recognition during the height of India's ascendancy in world cricket in the mid '80s. Sadanand was first selected in the Indian team which won the

tournament in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

and the Rothmans Cup in Sharjah days later, in 1985. The thumping triumphs, where India did not lose a single match, validated its claim as the world's best ODI team. People had started to believe in the qualities of a team they earlier thought had won the 1983 World Cup by fluke.

Playing style

An aggressive wicketkeeper-batsman, Vishwanath is remembered for a hard six he hit out of Bangalore's Chinnaswamy stadium against

Allan Border Allan Robert Border (born 27 July 1955) is an Australian cricket commentator and former international cricketer. A batsman, Border was for many years the Captain (cricket), captain of the Australia national cricket team, Australian team, and l ...

's Australians. Border commented later, "The ball probably had ice on it when it came down!"

International career

Viswanath's stint in international cricket was brief but the fiery wicketkeeper was noticed by all.

Sunil Gavaskar Sunil Manohar "Sunny" Gavaskar (Marathi pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, uniːl ɡaːʋəskəɾ born 10 July 1949), is a former captain of the Indian national cricket team who represented India national cricket team, India and Mumbai crick ...

commented in his book 'One-Day Wonders', "People will talk about many other reasons why we won the World Championship of Cricket in 1985 but one of the main reasons was the presence of Sadanand Vishwanath behind the stumps." The Australian media too had written that " this good-looking wicket-keeper may be on his way to becoming India’s best ever."

Death of Parents

The death of his parents within a short span of time had a demoralising effect. Viswanath was not able to fulfil the expectations placed upon him, and was replaced as wicket-keeper by

Kiran More Kiran Shankar More (born 4 September 1962) is an Indian former cricketer and wicket-keeper for the Indian cricket team from 1984 to 1993. He also took up the position Chairman of the Selection Committee of the BCCI till Dilip Vengsarkar took o ...

and

Chandrakant Pandit Chandrakant Sitaram Pandit (), nicknamed "Chandu" (born 30 September 1961), is a former Indian cricketer who played in five Test matches and 36 One Day Internationals from 1986 to 1992. He was a wicket-keeper batsman. He made his Test debut a ...

Coaching Academy

Sadanand now runs his private cricket coaching academy for young boys in

Kundalahalli Kundalahalli is an eastern suburb of Bengaluru city in State of Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 Nov ...

and also follows the game closely as an umpire in India's domestic championship for the Ranji Trophy. Recently, Sadanand was promoted to the Elite Panel of Indian umpires which makes him eligible to umpire the upper tier, that is, the zonal matches played for the Duleep and Deodhar Trophies.

References

External links

Sadanand Viswanath
at

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1962 births Indian cricketers 20th-century Indian sportsmen India One Day International cricketers India Test cricketers South Zone cricketers Karnataka cricketers Living people Cricketers from Bengaluru Wicket-keepers {{India-cricket-bio-1960s-stub