Thus began my journey with International games and it’s just a coincidence that I will be officiating my 100^th International game at the very stadium where I had begun my journey. The test match between India and Afghanistan which begins at Bengaluru on 14.06.18 would be my 100^th International game. It is also a coincidence that this 100^th game has come in my 50^th year of my cricketing career.

On May, 10, 1975, at home, Doddamma, Kitty, Seeki and Dodda Jayamma interviewed a girl in alliance for me. Her name was Vijayalakshmi, who became my life partner on 25^th June 1975.

Marriage took place at Hoysala Karnataka Sangha Hostel. Wilson Gardens, Bangalore and was attended by mother’s mentor “Seeni” with his family, which made me very happy. 

I was never aware of the fact that the “Emergency” was clamped in the country on June, 25, 1975.  When I reported for duty at the Bank, one of my colleague – Clement Susainathan, called me aside and asked “what were you doing on 25^th June”. I told him sheepishly, that I got married on that day. He joked that when the entire country was having Emergency on that day, you were having your “Emergency Night”. Clement resigned from the bank later and has settled down in US. We had a get together when he visited Bengaluru last year.

Prior to our wedding, I went for a walk with Vijayalakshmi and her sisters and cousins. At one moment, we two were left alone while her sisters and cousins were walking a few steps ahead of us. I suddenly told my would-be wife that you are “my second wife”. She was puzzled for a moment and stared directly in my eyes. I told her that Cricket is my first wife and she was my second. She was relived and told that she is very much interested in Carnatic Classical Vocal music. From that day to this day, we have never interfered in our respective fields.

I was the official scorer for many domestic matches such as Irani Cup matches, Duleep Trophy matches and a couple of Ranji Trophy matches played at Bengaluru.

In one such Irani Cup match played in the month of October in scorching heat, there was no shelter for official scorers. Sri M Chinnaswamy saw the lapse after the start of the match on the first day of the match and arranged for shelter during Lunch. Sri B Satyaji Rao, remembers this incident even to this day and the reaction of Sri M Chinnaswamy to the lapse of providing shelters to scorers was really apologetic. He was feeling a “Papa Prajna” for the lapse. It appears he told all the officials about this lapse and also feeling for me as I scorched under the Sun’s heat.

I sweat a lot and I used to score the matches with an Ink Pen. There were occasions when the score sheet used to get smudged due to my placing the palm on the score sheet. The score sheet used to look ugly. Seeki – my uncle came with a solution of using Dot Pens. I went a step ahead and used four coloured dot pens – Blue, Black, Green and Red. Singles scored by the batsmen were with Red, twos with Green, threes with Blue and fours with Black. This made the score sheet very colourful and also gave it a beautiful appearance. Thus I became the first scorer to introduce colour pens for scoring. This also made me easy to count the number of fours and sixes scored by the batsmen with ease.

Bengaluru became the test Centre hosting the test match between India and West Indies in November 1974. All India Radio had two commentary booths – one in English and another in Hindi. Cavale was an automatic choice for English Booth and M.S. Srihari, Programme Executive, All India Radio, was scouting a scorer for the Hindi Booth. It appears that he contacted Sri M. Chinnaswamy who had suggested my name. B. Satyaji Rao had also used his good offices to have me as a scorer for the Hindi Booth. B. Satyaji Rao and M.S. Srihari were good friends.

Thus, I made my international debut as a scorer for the first ever test match at Bengaluru between India and West Indies.

Suresh Saraiya, who was the Commentator for the English Booth had travelled to Bangalore along with Yashwant Chad, a scorer for All India Radio commentary broadcast of commentaries in Bombay, assuring him of the scoring assignment for the Bengaluru test.

It appears that Saraiya had put pressure on M.S.Srihari, to have Chad as a scorer instead of me citing the reason that I have no experience of scoring a test match. But M.S. Srihari, according to him, told Saraiya, that since Bengaluru has become a test centre and will host test matches in future, I have to build up a panel at Bengaluru and cannot have Chad as a scorer for the test. Thus H.R. Gopala Krishna, the International test cricket scorer was born.

Seeki my second uncle – was all help to me on the eve of the test. He knew that I have little knowledge of numbers in Hindi and gave me a book containing the Hindi equivalent to numbers. Seeki was a Hindi teacher and had passed MA Examination in Hindi from Benares University. He was also a Tamra Patri Awardee by Sri B.D. Jatti for his contribution to Hindi in the State of Mysore/Karnataka as a Hindi Pracharak.

Another interesting thing happened during the test. On the second day of the test, Tony Cozier, Guest Commentator for English Commentary broadcast saw my score sheet in person during lunch and appreciated it. He asked me whether I am officiating the third test at Madras.  I said no and requested to have the autographs of West Indian Cricketers on the score sheet. He took the score sheet to each of the touring West Indies team member and had their autographs for me. The score sheet is still the proud possession of mine. I have laminated all the four sheets. All the four score sheets of four innings of the test are annexed to this note.  I am glad to note that these score sheets have found a place prominently at the entrance of the club house of KSCA.