Vidhvath TN Engineer turns International Cricket Scorer

Sastra University Grad and a MNC Researcher on Cancer Treatment Medicines, Mylaporean Vidhvath is now an International Scorer having made his Debut on Wednesday in Utrecht

Last year, this section had predicted that Mylaporean Vidhvath Viswanathan, who is into research on medicines for cancer in a Multi National Firm in Netherlands, could one day become an international cricket scorer. Earlier, this section had featured a story on an international scorer from Chennai who played that role for Radio Australia (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2013/03/scorer-mani-numbers-man-for-radio.html). This one is about a Mylaporean, now in Holland, who is just starting out on an engagement as an international cricket scorer. 

On Wednesday (June 19) he debuted as a scorer in an international match in the T20 between Netherlands Women and Hongkong Women at Sportpark, Maarschalkerweerd, Utrecht, Netherlands. 

Shortly after making his debut, Vidhvath told this writer from Netherlands on Wednesday night that he enjoyed the new experience of talking with the third umpire over the walkie talkie and engaging with the Match Referee  “The match was also being streamed live with commentary as well and that was particularly exciting. As a scorer, I have to keep a close eye on the two batters and their distinctive features (height, shoe colour, left/right) as these are players I have never seen before."

He is also upgrading himself into doing book scoring and digital scoring simultaneously to be prepared for challenging situations at the higher level. In recent times, he has also equipped himself with the scenarios relating to DLS that will become an integral part of a scorer's job in international matches.

As so often happens with new experiences, the digital app, handled by his co-scorer on Wednesday, failed in the first over of the match and the responsibility was solely on 'Book Scorer' Vidhvath for the official record till the app issues were resolved.

Fruitful experience in local matches 

Over the last two years, he has been scoring in matches within Netherlands at the Women's T10/T20 u19 level. Earlier this year, he was the scorer in a game that involved the Dutch international players in preparation for the T20 World Cup. Leading to this, he had been a back up scorer for the U19 World Cup qualifications, but eventually did not get a chance with many of the games having been rained off. But it did give him the much needed exposure.

Ahead of the preparation for the u19 WC qualifiers, he was also invited for a global scorers' meeting "I learned a lot about setting expectations and the importance of communicating with 3rd umpire/ match referee and also got an opportunity to engage with a couple of experienced scorers from the UK. They spoke about access passes and phones not being allowed in the scorer box", he told this writer looking back at the global scorers meeting.

A late starter in Cricket

Like most Indians, he was crazy about cricket but did not get to play even league cricket in Chennai with his focus during the teenage years, initially being on getting high grades in Class XII and then his Engineering degree at Sastra. It was not until he was well into his 20s did he get to play league cricket, in the Netherlands where he had moved to in the second half of the previous decade.

Coached by DJ Gokulakrishnan

Fast bowler Vidhvath also captained his club Concordia for a couple of years. When he was in Chennai for a holiday last summer, he was coached by TN allrounder from the 1990s DJ Gokulakrishnan (https://prtraveller.blogspot.com/2023/10/gokulakrishnan-dj-passes-away-at-50.html), who passed away in October last year. Following the short coaching on fast bowling, he went on to become one of the highest wicket takers in league cricket last year and bagged the best bowler award for 2023. 

Scoring lends naturally to the introverted personality

While he was thus enjoying playing the game that he had so dearly missed during his teenage years, Vidhvath had begun trying his hand at scoring starting off with local club matches.  He says that being an introverted person, Scoring lent itself naturally to his personality. He would often travel three hours by train from Delft, where he is currently living, to spend a whole day in scoring in matches in different cities in the Netherlands. But it was this early experience that is now taking him to the next level. Earlier this year, Vidhvath undertook a Level 2 scoring course organised by KNCB, the Dutch cricket board, with his club Concordia sponsoring his expenses for the course.

Life in the 30s - Saving Lives and International Cricket Scorer

In addition to working on life saving drugs during the weekdays, playing cricket over the weekends and learning the Vedas, Vidhvath is now moving into an excited phase in his life that of turning into a Professional Scorer in international cricket matches. Soon, he will be scoring in the women's T20 tri series involving Netherlands, Papua New Guinea and Scotland. In August, he will be the scorer in a Men's T20 and a ODI, when USA and Canada visit Netherlands. While he continues to help in saving lives through his corporate role, a bright career in international scoring beckons for this 32 year old.

(Vidhvath is the son of the music teacher at Sri Sankara School, Adyar)