They are the unsung contributors to the game. The scorers have been an important segment of cricket, chronicling the events on the field with their dedicated work, keeping a record of the happenings with unflinching accuracy.
A game of cricket can never be complete without a scorer. “It is demanding, needs uncompromising concentration, and is an art if you ask me. It is one area of the game which has never been recognised even though a scorer is required to be on the job every ball of the contest,” says Narayan Kumar Lakhotia, a veteran with close to four decades of experience.
Lakhotia leads a team of six official scorers from Delhi. The others — Ramandeep Singh Ahluwalia, Bhagwat Singh Rawat, Krishna Kumar Tiwari, Jatin Sood and Aijaz Ahmed — look up to him for guidance as scoring has assumed a professional look in modern cricket. Most of them owe their growth as scorers to the late Amarnath Gaud, a lively figure in Delhi cricket, who spent 300 days in a year on the cricket field as scorer and umpire.
“I come from the era of manual scoring,” Lakhotia smiles. Having graduated from Hansraj College in Maths (Hons.), he has made a career in scoring. “I loved watching cricket and just could not stay away from the ground. I would go to the Ferozeshah Kotla and slowly got involved in scoring. It was a nice way to follow the game. I realised that scoring can be a career and plunged full time into it,” recalls Lakhotia, who made his first-class debut in 1981 with the Delhi-Tamil Nadu Ranji Trophy quarter final match. “TE (Srinivasan) hit a magnificent century in that match and it was such a privilege to have done scoring for that knock.”
An enjoyable profession
Tiwari is an encyclopaedia on Delhi cricket. He came to the Capital after studying in Agra Sports Hostel. “Circumstances compelled me to take to scoring. I would get fifty rupees as monthly allowance from home and it was hardly sufficient. It then struck me that scoring can help me make some money. I would do scoring in local matches and earn close to hundred rupees a month. Scoring became a system and then a career,” says Tiwari, who has made a career out of professional scoring and umpiring too in local matches.
For Ramandeep, better known as RD in Delhi’s cricket circles, scoring is a way of life. “It is an enjoyable profession. It keeps you involved with the game and fetches you a decent earning. I took to scoring because I loved the game. It is hard work but at the end of the day there is satisfaction of having contributed in your own way,” smiles RD.
A scorer’s work begins with the toss. “We have to procure the playing XIs from the two captains and enter the teams in the score sheet. It becomes the official record for the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India). Once the first ball is bowled, there can’t be a moment of relaxation for the scorer barring the drinks, lunch and tea breaks. There are times when you don’t have a partner and can’t even take a toilet break,” says Sood, the youngest of the group.
Rawat comes from a family that has connections with cricket in different ways. His elder brother, RS Rawat, is an umpire and the man who pushed him into scoring. Another brother, Ishwar Rawat, was a BCCI panel scorer too. “Scoring may not be a glamorous profession like umpiring. We stay in the background. Television has made the umpires famous too but as scorers we are as much involved with the game as them,” says Rawat.
No game of cricket can happen without a scorer. “We record the game literally,” notes Lakhotia, who has stuck to manual scoring in times when the digital format has become the need. “Technology has made scoring comparatively easy. With a click of the mouse the entry is made in all the boxes but you still need a manual scorer. What if the digital device stops working? How do you feed the data in that case because you have to record every ball and every run. Manual scoring has its own charm,” insists the 63-year-old Lakhotia, who also doubles up as an umpire in local matches.
Veteran scorer from Uttar Pradesh, Saurabh Chaturvedi, exemplifies the significance of manual scoring. “Not that I can’t do digital scoring. It’s exciting too but manual scoring has its charm. You mark the scores on the sheet with different colours. For example, a boundary is marked in blue, a six in green and the runs (one, two or three) in red. I find it fascinating,” says the Kanpur-based Chaturvedi.
The co-ordination between the scorer and the umpires is a vital cog in the smooth conduct of the match. “We have to watch every signal and record it in the score sheet. Every ball is recorded and obviously every run,” reiterates Lakhotia.
Reliving the match
The linear scoring system helps the scorer create the day’s play. “We can relive the match with details of every ball, what time it was bowled and which batsman faced it. Was it a dot ball or runs were scored off the delivery? It is an art that makes scoring a very fascinating profession,” notes Sood.
For their hard work, the remuneration that scorers receive needs a revision. They are the least paid among those involved with the game — players, commentators and umpires. For them it is a full time profession which becomes hectic during the Indian Premier League (IPL) fixtures. A scorer earns 5000 per day from all BCCI matches (with a cap of 35 games) and 10000 per IPL match. In local games the scorers get 1200 per match. “None of us has a regular job because we can’t afford to take leave,” says Lakhotia.
“A scorer is an integral part of the game. He documents the match unerringly with utmost commitment. It would be nice if the authorities hike the fee for the scorers,” pleads RD. It is a request not out of place. Scorers deserve to be treated better, for they document the game for posterity.
