Chandra Nayudu

Chandra Nayudu was born in a 1933 Telugu-speaking Kapu family.[4][5][6] Her father, C. K. Nayudu, was a well-known cricketer and the captain of India's first Test cricket team.[7][3] She was the youngest of the three daughters of C. K. Nayudu from his first wife.[8] Her uncle C. S. Nayudu also played for India, while her nephew Vijay Nayudu was a first-class cricketer.[7][9] Her ancestors hailed from Machilipatnam town in Andhra Pradesh.[10][11]

Nayudu graduated with a degree in English, and taught English at a government college in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.[3] Nayudu competed briefly in domestic women's cricket, leading the first Uttar Pradesh women's cricket team,[12] and played cricket for her college, before taking up cricket commentary in the 1970s.[9] She was India's first female cricket commentator.[1][2][3] She began her career in commentary in a match between the touring Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) vs. Bombay in the 1976-77 season, and continued to comment for domestic and international matches in Hindi and English.[13] She was also a commentator during the English team's tour of India in 1979-1980 for India's public broadcaster, All India Radio,[14] and later recorded her experiences in cricket commentary for an interview with cricket historian David Rayvern Allen, archived with Lord's.[12] According to Nayudu, she was the first female international cricket commentator, preceding an Australian woman commentator.[12] In an interview with ESPN Cricinfo, she stated that her interest in cricket commentary began as a way of honoring her father's achievements in cricket.[15] In 1982, she was invited to the Golden Jubilee Test Match between India and England.[16]

She was a life member of the Madhya Pradesh Cricket Association, and undertook several efforts to promote women's cricket in the region, including establishing an inter-university tournament.[3] According to her nephew, former cricketer Vijay Nayudu, she created several trophies in memory of her parents for cricket tournaments, including the presentation of a silver bat to the Cricket Club of India, and a collegiate memorial trophy for her mother.[2] Her last posting was as a principal in early 1990 at the Government Girls PG College in Indore.[3] In 1995, she published a memoir of her father titled C.K. Nayudu: A Daughter Remembers.[13]

Nayudu lived at Manorama Ganj in Indore, close to the Holkar Stadium, where her father frequently played.[1] She passed away in Indore on 4 April 2021 at the age of 88.[2]

• Chandra K. Nayudu, C.K. Nayudu: A Daughter Remembers (New Delhi, Rupa Publications 1995), ISBN 9788171672837