CHENNAI: When Arun Kumar Manickvasagam shared the happiness of scoring for the 2022 Women’s ODI World Cup warm-up fixture between India and South Africa on February 27 with the copy of the scoresheet, little did he know what was about to follow. It was the first official day of the warm-ups and there were multiple glitches across three ongoing matches. So much so that the ICC website read that India had lost the game while according to the scoresheet shared by Arun, they had won by two runs.
Minutes after he tweeted the picture, it blew up and was trending as the fans were confused. While the scoresheet proved to be correct in the end, taken aback by the reaction, Arun took down the post. If his picture of scoring for Ross Taylor’s last Test grabbed some attention, the warm-up match shot him to fame. “I was shocked,” he recalls the incident. “I didn’t really expect it to get the kind of reaction it got. And I decided not to share anything again,” he adds with a laugh.
For the aeronautical engineer from Chennai, the confusion that day put a lot of things into perspective, especially the importance of a scorer’s role in a cricket match. Arun took up scoring for the love of the sport once he moved to New Zealand in 2014. He has enjoyed his journey from scoring for Burnside West Christchurch University Cricket Club to the ICC Women’s World Cup in the last eight years.
Hailing from a family of pharmacists, Arun had no opportunity to play professional cricket. “I used to play just gully cricket and watch all the matches, but did not play hard-ball cricket until I got to New Zealand,” says this MS Dhoni fan.
As he started scoring season after season at Christchurch, it became an opportunity to interact and take pictures with his favourite cricketers after the matches. But over the years, Arun developed a passion for it as he started interacting with other scorers from the world to learn from their experiences.
One of the memorable moments for Arun in his journey so far was when he made his Test debut as a scorer earlier in January 2022. “In my first match, Tom Latham played for the club I scored. To see him as the captain in the first Test match I scored felt like life had come full circle. It was also Ross Taylor’s last match, so it was pretty special.”
The 30-year-old scored for two ODIs in an official capacity during the Women’s World Cup, including the final. He was among the scorers for India’s last game where they lost in the final delivery of the match and got eliminated. “The joy of scoring for such a thriller doesn’t come often. It’s easy to get emotional when your home country or the hosts are playing, but as a scorer, you have to try to be neutral. Which is what I tried to do, but I did feel the emotion. The final was a bit more relaxed as it was a neutral clash,” he said.
Arun, who is currently pursuing his postdoc, doesn’t see himself taking up scoring as a full-time job. “Like most kids back home, I had dreams of playing for my country one day. Now that I have worked as a scorer in a World Cup, I feel satisfied as one would after representing the country at the highest level. At the end of the day, it is that feeling that matters,” he signs off.