Dark chocolate for dark boy: L Sivaramakrishnan says he faced racism from teammates

Laxman Sivaramakrishnan revealed how teenage encounters with racism and systemic bias shattered his confidence, offering a haunting new perspective on why one of India's greatest bowling prodigies saw his career unravel.

The tragedy of Laxman Sivaramakrishnan is often filed under the cautionary tales of Indian cricket, a narrative of a teenage prodigy who conquered the world at 19 and vanished by 22. We were told he lost his rhythm, his loop, and eventually, his discipline. We were told he was an alcoholic.

But the real story of the boy they called LS isn't found in the scorecards of the 1985 World Championship of Cricket. It lies in the trembling of a 16-year-old outside a Mumbai hotel, terrified of being turned away because the gatekeeper refused to believe that a dark-skinned boy could be an Indian cricketer, one of the many harrowing incidents he recalled in his interview with The Indian Express.

Sivaramakrishnan's international career remains one of cricket's most haunting flash-in-the-pan trajectories. After making his Test debut at just 17 years and 118 days in 1983, he reached his zenith during the 1984-85 home series against England, dismantling them with 12 wickets in Bombay. His global arrival was cemented during the 1985 World Championship of Cricket in Australia, where he finished as the leading wicket-taker with 10 dismissals, guiding India to the title. However, the decline was as swift as the rise; by the age of 21, his Test career was effectively over. He finished with just 26 Test wickets, a tally that pales in comparison to the 500-wicket greatness many, including Gavaskar, had predicted.

The unwinding began long before the flight of his leg-break deserted him. At just 14, still in his school uniform, LS was a net bowler for the national side at Chepauk. In the sanctity of the dressing rooms, a senior Indian batsman allegedly mistook him for ground staff, ordering the child to clean his shoes.

"I just looked at him and said, 'That's none of my business,'" Sivaramakrishnan told The Indian Express.

At the time, he didn't have a word for racism. He only had the confusion of why a hero would treat a boy that way.