Welcome to Episode 100 of Never on the Backfoot Podcast. Joining us on the podcast is WV Raman. Standing unusually tall at the crease, with a left-hander's penchant for off-side play, WV Raman was a batter who should have ended with more generous returns than 11 Tests and 27 ODIs. He began as a left-arm spinner whose strength was his ability to out-think batters rather than impart outrageous spin or deliver an indecipherable arm-ball; he picked up a wicket in his first over in Test cricket, albeit that of Courtney Walsh. But Raman proved to be a batter of considerable skill. He hit a purple patch in 1988-89, scoring 313 for Tamil Nadu against Goa, and for good measure notched up two more double-centuries, ending the season with 1018 runs, surpassing a 44-year-old record for most runs in a season. As with many other batters of his time WV Raman Sir was forced to open the innings in order to play for India, and did so with some success. His second-innings 83 on Test debut, batting at No. 3, was overshadowed by Narendra Hirwani's feat of picking up the best bowling figures of 16-136 on debut. Sir's international career never really got going, and when Vinod Kambli was favoured over him during England's tour of India in 1993 the writing was on the wall. Kambli cashed in, and Raman's career remained a question of what might have been. The record will show, however, that he scored 96, his highest Test score - against New Zealand at home in 1990, went to Sri Lanka in 1993 and did not take part in a single first-class game, and became the first Indian to score a hundred against the South Africans, in an ODI at Centurion Park in the Friendship Tour of 1992-93. Raman Sir continues to be one of the shrewdest thinkers of the game now and dons many roles. This introduction describing Sir was written beautifully by Anand Vasu Sir on ESPN Cricinfo, but there is so much more to the man. Hopefully, this episode provides you, listeners, with a glimpse of the man who indeed is a legend. Without further ado, let's hop on to understand more about his journey with Cricket. It was an amazing conversation where a lot of things about his career, playing days, his coaching career and everything cricket was discussed, so don't miss out. The podcast is also available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Anchor, Overcast and a lot of other platforms and so please do spread the word. Do check out @neveronthebackfoot on Instagram and @neverontheback1 on Twitter for the latest facts, trivia, quizzes, terminology, retweets, fresh tweets and a lot more coming up this cricket season. Stay safe and take care, listeners ?