“Don’t you think Vikram (Raju) that it was in our destiny to be associated with this match?”, asks a doting Dara Dotiwala in a documentary by the Australian Broadcast Corporation.
The 83-year-old former umpire is referring to the last day of the India-Australia Test on Sept. 22, 1986 when Vikram Raju, the second standing umpire in that match, lifted his index finger to rule Maninder Singh out as Test cricket produced its second tie in Madras’ hallowed furnace of a ground — M.A. Chidambaram Stadium.
Maninder’s disbelief
Maninder is flabbergasted, though. He thinks there’s an inside edge and puts his bat up straightaway. Australia, meanwhile, is scurrying away from the square in jubilation even as non-striker Ravi Shastri is sticking his hand out — perhaps to refuse a single?
“Oh, absolutely. There was an inside edge,” says Shastri in the documentary.
Thirty-one years on, Vikram Raju stands by his decision.
“That was clearly out! I gave it out and that was out,” he says in a chat .
“Right-arm off-spinner Greg Matthews took the last wicket and the batsman was Maninder Singh. And it was a really good match,” he reminisces.
However, the Test’s propensity for an abiding tinge of controversy lingers to this day.
“I remember storming into the umpire’s room and having a real go at Vikram Raju,” says the incumbent head-coach of India and former all-rounder Shastri, in the documentary.
But Vikram Raju remembers it differently.
“No player from either camp came and spoke to me about the decision. Shastri didn’t talk to me either; he didn’t say anything,” he says.
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, when even third-umpires weren’t in vogue, the Decision Review System (DRS) was a far cry.
“DRS makes life easy for on-field officials — it is easier for the umpires to verify (whether they’re right or not).
“During our days, there was no DRS but we were confident and made all the calls on the field itself.
“DRS is not correction, it is verification,” he says.
Vikram Raju never stood in an international Test after that, the ODI between India and West Indies in Thiruvananthapuram, on January 25, 1988 being his final limited-over assignment.
Asked if the ending would’ve been different had the DRS been used then, he says with a firm voice, “Even if there was DRS in that Test, my decision wouldn’t have been overturned.”
