Veteran cricket scorer and statistician H.R. Gopalakrishna will launch his autobiography Records Galore on August 7, chronicling five decades of cricket scoring, memorable encounters with legends, and the evolution of cricket statistics from painstaking manual record-keeping to the digital era.
Updated On – 5 July 2026, 12:52 PM
Hyderabad: For someone who got inspired by his grandfather, a passionate cricket fan, and neighbours Niranjan Ram, who used to jot down the scorecards of Test matches listening to raido commentary, DN Raghavendra Rao, the 80-year-old H.R. Gopalakrishna after making his own lasting impression in the world of statisticians is now launching his autobiography
Records Galore’ on August 7 next month in the presence of some of the cricketing greats to share his experiences, the highs and lows in his long and illustrious, five-decade journey as a scorer.
“Those were the days when I used to prepare for a test match by preparing the career records of the 15 or 16 cricketers along with the detailed notes and statistics such as Head to Head results hundreds, nineties, fifties, zeroes scored by batsmen, four or more wickets by bowlers, three figure partnerships of the two teams that were playing – all annually,” recalls Bangalorean Gopalakrishna in a chat with ‘Telangana Today’.
“Those were manual days of scoring and it was extremely demanding. No doubt, now, computers are of great help in terms of retrieving data faster and presenting the various records,” he said.
“When we started scoring there was no remuneration at all from the State Associations. It was the love of the game which drove one to score a cricket match. Akashvani used to pay Rs.25 per match. If there is no play on any day or days of the match, then prorate payment of Rs.8.33 will be deducted. If two days play was lost payment would be Rs.8.33 and if one day play was lost payment would be Rs.16.66,” said a smiling HRG, as he is popularly known.
“Now things have changed for the good. For all domestic matches, scorers from the BCCI panel are appointed. The remuneration will be as under
Test Matches – Rs.25,000.00 per day, ODI – Rs,25,000, T20I – Rs.12,500 per match. Akashavani Payment is also improved Test Matches – Rs.5,500 per day of the Test match, ODI – Rs.5,500 per day, T20I – Rs,2750.00 per match
Akashvani pays three way second AC train fare and DA of Rs.1500.00 per day and also Rs.1500.00 hotel accomdation per day on submission of the bill,” HRG explained.
“Thanks to the BCCI scorers examinations periodically, the numbers of qualified scorers have increased and yes consequently outstation assignments have become few and far,” he said.
“One of my memorable souvenirs was one full of statistics which I had brought out on Lala’s request. “With all of my best wishes to Dear Gopal” he wrote in September 1979. I had laminated this sheet and preserved it. This souvenir contains the prized possession of the photograph of Don Bradman. This photograph was specially signed for Lala Amaranath by the legend. This was revealed to me by Lala himself in one of our meetings,” HRG said.
“I had become a member of Association of Cricket Statisticians England and used to get the monthly journals regularly. In the 1978 journal, I saw an advertisement from JW Mckenzie and Sons that “BW Frindall’s Cricket Book 1877-1978 was released. I can proudly say that I was the first Indian scorer-statistician to own this book. I used this book extensively during the test match between India and West Indies at Bombay in which SM Gavaskar scored a double hundred-205 and AI Kalicharan scored 189. Both Gavaskar and AI Kallicharan were leading their respective teams. This was the first ever Test match in which rival captains scored 150 plus runs and narrowly missed the stats of rival captains scoring double hundreds,” HRG explained.
“Another occasion of correcting Bill Frindall came my way. It was during the India and England Test Match at Chennai in which AJ Strauss of England had scored hundreds in both innings and England stared at defeat. He was in the BBC box and me in the Akashvani box, both adjacent to each other with a glass wall separating the booth. He put his requirement on the number of occasions of a team losing a test when one of its batsmen scored hundreds in both innings. I had time to write the entire list of such instances and gave it to him. My list contained one instance more than the list he had. He thanked me profusely for the same and the next morning he presented his autobiography asking me ‘How should I address you Sir”. I told him you can address me as Gopal. He wrote “with best wishes to Gopal’ and presented the book to me with his signature. The book is a proud possession and adorns my shelf,” says a proud HRG.
“There is one test match in which I was very excited, despite my composure and Concentration. This was the test match between India and Australia at Chennai in Mar 2001. India won this test by two wickets. I was unable to sit in the Commentary box and concentrate. I had to come out of the box a couple of times unable to bear the excitement,” signed off the indefatigable scorer.
