“When passion becomes profession, it doesn’t feel like work anymore”

As the stadium erupts in a frenzied cheer and the batsman raises his willow for yet another century, K. K. Tiwari sits behind the boundary line with a booklet in front of him.

As the batsman gears up for the next delivery, Tiwari uses those precious few seconds to update the runs in his booklet.

Keeping scores in cricket can be fun as well as a fulfilling occupation, says Tiwari, a scorer by profession for the past many years.

“When passion becomes profession, it doesn’t feel like work anymore,” says the official scorer for several of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) matches.

Tiwari, who started out as a scorer due to an interest in the game, recalls how Rs. 50 per match was considered good pocket money in Kanpur for keeping scores during the 1980s.

Initially he used to keep score only on Sundays. “That way, by scoring for one match, I was able to gather earnings for a full month.”

However, even as he continued playing the sport professionally, he sensed no scope for growth in this field and was forced to seek employment elsewhere.

After acquiring a Bachelor of Commerce degree, he started working as an accountant. But, his heart was not in it. Instead he started squeezing time out of his daily routine and wrote press releases for the local matches.

He met former Indian women test cricketer Diana Edulji, who is even today the highest wicket taker of all time. “She asked me if I would be interested in umpiring.”

One thing led to another and he started umpiring once a week. For the remaining days, he had his lottery business to take care of. However, with the sudden shutdown of the business by the government, Tiwari lost his livelihood and immersed himself in cricket. He was umpiring during the day and writing press releases by night.

“But I didn’t have enough contacts to make it big in umpiring,” he laments.

As chance would have it, the under-19 World Cup Tournament was going on in Delhi at the time and there was a shortage in the number of BCCI scorers. They approached Tiwari, who willingly agreed to fill in. There was no looking back for him after that.

In 2004, after 10 years of active scoring, he travelled to Ahmedabad to sit for the scorers’ test, clearing which would make him eligible to become an official scorer for BCCI. He passed the test next year in Kanpur, opening the gates of scoring for international matches in the Capital.

“Delhi is the only city where there are matches daily, come rain or shine and even at night,” he says.

Each match fetches Rs. 3,000, plus Rs. 500 for conveyance if you do the electronic scoring as well.

“I tell my children that I am a cricket liaisoner,” he signs off.