The Andhra Pradesh cricket team has been, over the years, not one of the significant achievers in Indian domestic cricket. The team represents the whole of Andhra Pradesh with the exception of Hyderabad that has its own cricket team playing in the various domestic competitions in India. The team normally plays its home games at the APCA-VDCA Stadium that is located in Vishakhapatnam. However, the team also plays a couple of games at Anantapur and Vijaywada. It is one among the various teams in India that is yet to take part in the final of a Ranji Trophy.
One of the best seasons for the south Indian team in recent memory has been the year 2007-08, when it was part of the prestigious Elite Group and managed to win a couple of matches from their six games. During that season they missed the semi-finals only by a whisker. As far as the zonal classification of the teams goes, it is categorized as a South Zone team.
One of the most well known cricketers in the team’s history was Modireddy Venkat ‘Bobjee’ Narasimha Rao who played 4 tests against the West Indies and Australia during the 1978-79 season. Rao’s modest statistics are not a true reflection of the impact that he created in the first class scene. In 108 first class matches, he scored 4845 runs with an average of 40.71 and hit 9 centuries. His top score in first class cricket was 160 not out. Rao was also a very good leg-break bowler as is evident from the 245 wickets he took at a bowling average of 28.05. He had 15 five wicket hauls and thrice he took 10 wickets in a match. His best bowling in an innings was 7/21. To go with all these, he took 111 catches as well.
Danthala Venkata Meher Baba is one of the leading cricketers of not only Andhra Pradesh but South India as a whole. From 1971 to 1989 he played for Andhra with an appearance for Hyderabad in 1978. In his 19 year career, this left-handed batsman scored 2649 runs with a maximum score of 134 not out versus Goa. He hit 20 half-centuries as well and claimed 173 wickets with his slow left-arm orthodox spin. He took 5 five-wicket hauls in his career and his best performance was 5 for 32. Following are the other illustrious cricketers to have represented this state:
- Mechpa Pavan Kumar Poosarla
- R.V. Kiron Prasad
- Bhaskara Ramamurthy
- Venugopal Rao
- Kommireddi Kamaraju
- Ambati Rayudu
- M. S. K. Prasad
