Venkatesh Prasad, also known as Bapu Krishnarao Venkatesh Prasad, is a former Indian cricket player. He primarily played as a right-arm medium-fast bowler and his bowling combination with Javagal Srinath was much famed. Presently he serves as the bowling coach for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League. From 2007 to 2009 he played the same role for the Indian cricket team. Venkatesh Prasad made his debut in the Indian cricket in the year 1996. Born on 5 August 1969, Prasad was noted for his slower deliveries and owned the fame of being one of the first proponents of this style in the world cricket.

Career of Venkatesh Prasad
Venkatesh Prasad bagged 96 wickets from 33 Tests with an average of 35. He also took 196 wickets from 161 One Day Internationals at an average of 32.3. His excellence was more prominent on wickets. His best Test bowling figures of 6 for 33 which was achieved in the year 1999 Test series in India against Pakistan. This however was played on a docile pitch in Chennai which includes a magical bowling performance in which he grabbed 5 wickets for 0 runs. In December 1996, in a Test match in Durban, South Africa, he bagged 10 wickets. It marks his only ten wicket haul in Test cricket. He had five wickets hauls also in West Indies in 1997, Sri Lanka in 2001 and England in 1996. The year 2001 marked the final Test match of Venkatesh Prasad.

One of his glorious moments arrived in 1996 Cricket World Cup when after being openly sledged and being hit for a boundary by the Pakistan batsman Aamir Sohail, he clean bowled Sohail the very next ball. It also became the turning point of the match. In his sports career he also had struggled with his injuries which resulted into his dipping form in the cricket. After 2001 test series in Sri Lanka, he was dropped from the Indian team. His attempts to make a come back remained unsuccessful and in May 2005 he took his retirement from cricket after securing two Ranji Trophy championships with Karnataka.

Later he became the coach of the India Under-19 Cricket team. He served as the coach of the U-19 team that finished runners-up in the 2006 U-19 Cricket World Cup. He was also appointed as the bowling coach of the team for the Bangladesh Tour after the disappointing performance of the Indian Team in World Cup 2007. Venkatesh Prasad moved out of the Indian cricket arena in the year 2009.

Achievements of Venkatesh Prasad
In 1999 Venkatesh Prasad won Man of the Match awards in ODIs against Pakistan and England. He was awarded as the Ceat International Cricketer of the Year 1996-97. In the year 2000 he was honoured with Arjuna Award.

Personal Life of Venkatesh Prasad
Venkatesh Prasad is married to Jayanthi Prasad. It is the second marriage of the latter. The couple has a son named Prithvi.