Author: Bobji

The news of Ashwin’s disc slip on the hip brought the world of the family crashing down. Ashwin’s father, consulted another doctor who said that two surgeries would be required, one to open the hip and the other to open the back. Screws will not be required if Ashwin goes ahead with these surgeries. His parents prepared to spend a lot on the surgery. However, the family wasn’t ready for a surprise. His mother was asked by her boss why she looked so worried while she was at work. She described the entire events. Immediately, her boss arranged for an appointment with Dr. Gopalakrishnan, the chief surgeon at Apollo Hospitals. The doctor told them that no need for any surgery and that it would be alright with adequate rest. The downside was, he wasn’t allowed to move from his bed for 6 weeks. The hearbreak and the elation.

He gets out of the bed and to school in 6 weeks. However, he wasn’t allowed any strenuous activities. Running and cricket are out of the way. He volunteers himself to become the scorer in one of the games in which Abhinav Mukund scored a hundred. Ashwin just could not stop thinking about the game. He imagined a lot of scenarios of playing Test cricket. His parents were resigned to the fact that they lived with a cricket maniac.

Ashwin again talks about his father gloriously. It was he who convinced Ashwin not to let the batsman get away with when he leaves the crease too early. Now, we all know from where he got this idea. Remember Jos Buttler incident? It was correct what Ashwin did on that day. Further, Ashwin describes liking a girl at the age of 14. I am not going to go into the details here.

Back on the field

Ashwin is back on the cricket field but is not allowed to bowl. He can bat. He narrates a beautiful incident of how he took to off-spin. His mother watches one of the game and wonders why was he in the field all day doing nothing. Ashwin explains that he cannot bowl and hence, he was just fielding. His mother wasn’t convinced and wanted him to do something to be engaged in the game. Leg-spin or off-spin. That was how he started to bowl off-spin. However, because of his layoff, he gained 20 KGS. This made him very slow on the field. He wasn’t picked in various representative sides because of the slowness on the field. Ashwin tried everything like running long distances, running quickly but he couldn’t lose weight. That was when he met a fitness coach who taught him how to lose weight and build muscles.

Ashwin then writes about some of the gully cricket games that he played mostly with the tennis ball. They used to play bet matches. Anyone in India will know what a bet-match is. It was during one of these games, he saw someone with an off-spinner’s action turn the ball the other way. He followed him wherever he went and learned how to bowl that delivery. Ofcourse, it is difficult to bowl that delivery with a red ball.

Ashwin practices at the St. Bede’s cricket where former Tamil Nadu cricketer, S. Sharath also comes for practice. Ashwin felt that Sharath was unfairly kept out of the Indian team despite scoring mountains for runs. The rest of the chapter is about how Ashwin enjoyed his street cricket and how he and his friends befriended a soup stall owner named Muthu.

The U17 cricket

Ashwin travels to Bombay for the India U-17 selection trials. He shared a room with Aniruddha Srikkanth. There he also hears about Rohit Sharma and Pujara in that camp. There were players to make up 2 teams. They played among themselves with Ashwin ended up batting pretty well when the pitch was at its best for bowling. He gets selected for the India U-17 team. Rohit was also in the team but Pujara wasn’t. During the tournament itself, Ashwin got to play only one game, against Nepal. He being a opening batsman, was sent in at number 6 by Venkatesh Prasad, the coach. Prasad even asked him to focus on his off-spin rather than batting. However, Ashwin felt the odd man out in a team that only spoke in Hindi. No one even bothered to talk in English.

Ashwin being from Tamil Nadu, did not understand Hindi. The other players made fun of him in Hindi which he wasn’t able to understand. He felt humiliated and insulted and vowed never to play again for the nation. Back home, he felt comfortable among his friends who noticed how his game improved after the U17 tournament. They all felt that Ashwin would be an international player. What did he do? He enrolled himself for Hindi tuition.

First trial with spin

Ashwin played in age-group cricket in Tamil Nadu where his captain was Aniruddha. It was he who encouraged Ashwin’s spin capabilities. He would always bring him to bowl pretty soon during the games and Ashwin repaid the favour with wickets. A little later, he was selected for the U-19 Indian camp at Bangalore where he was put through strenuous fitness regime. Needless to say, Ashwin did not score high on the fitness charts. He works exceptionally hard during the camp and improves his levels tremendously. Towards the end of the camp, Dilip Vengsarkar tells him that he may get selected as a middle order batsman who can also contribute with the ball during the U19 World Cup.

Ashwin became too good for the lower division league teams when D. Vasu, former Tamil Nadu player spots him and asks him to play for Chemplast. At the sametime, Bharath Reddy also wants him to play for Jolly Rovers. Inbetween, Indian Bank too wants him to play for them in the first division league. Ashwin choses Chemplast. He does well in the games leading upto the South Zone team selection but wasn’t picked. This left him completely dejected and returned to Chemplast where he learned quite a lot under the guidance of Vasu. He teaches him how to set fields, when to move fielders back or when to bring them forward, how to think a batsman out and various other aspects of the game.

Previous chapters

https://icricketcritique.com/ashwin-and-the-opening/
https://icricketcritique.com/it-was-all-on-the-streets/

Ashwin’s competitive instinct that we all are bearing witness to, is with him right from his childhood. He wanted everyone to play the game seriously. Anyone who does not, was not welcome to the game. Ashwin goes onto describe the street cricket that he played with his friends and also his cousins. He was the youngest of them. Straight behind the bowler, were glass windows, which essentially means that hitting straight was not an option. They had to improvise and score square of the wicket. Pull became the main scoring shot. If the ball goes over the boundary and into the nearby temple or the homes, the batsman was out. If a batsman gets hit three times on the leg, he was out. They played competitive Test cricket. The games were often spilled over to the next day. It was all on the streets.

Whenever, a window was broken, the boys will run and was nowhere to be seen for fear of the neighbourhood uncles and aunties scolding. Ashwin was the likeliest culprit. Also, because his competitive streak would often want to prove a point. After the games, they all kept discussing about international games and about players. These games laid the foundation for their friendship. All of these remind me of my childhood because we did all these things too.

Watching the game from the stadium

Around that time, his mother’s company become the sponsor for the India vs Australia series in 1998. Tendulkar prepares for Warne by asking L Siva to bowl on the rough outside the leg-stump. Ashwin pesters his mother for complimentary tickets from her company. He makes plans as to how to watch the game from the stadium and what food to carry. Those days, food and water were allowed inside the stadium unlike now where everything is banned. The d-day arrived and Ashwin was off with his father to the stadium to watch the game. Needless to say that he had a good time. 10 months later, it was India vs Pakistan, a game that will forever be etched in the minds of every Indian supporter.

Ashwin’s father being an employee of railways, getting train tickets was easy. Believe me, it was and is tough to get train tickets in this nation. He alongwith his father, will go to Bangalore and Bombay to watch games. It must be said that his father was extremey supportive of him, either watching the game or playing the game. So much so that, he even build an indoor nets to help Ashwin improve his batting.

First competitive cricket

At 12, Ashwin plays his first league cricket in the Madras league for Egmore Excelsiors. In the 2^nd season, he scores a hundred. His job was to score runs and run around the ground because he was young whereas the others were old. He became quite good and was more than a match in the 5^th division. His father sensing something in him, enrolled him in Bharath Reddy’s coaching academy. His father also wanted Ashwin to be tested against the better bowlers. L. Balaji, the former Indian bowlers was at that academy but Bharath Reddy warned that for a 13 year old to bat against Balaji was death wish.

In the other academy, run the Shri. Dharmalingam, the man who Kapil Dev credited with teaching him how to take catches running back and over the shoulder. The most famous one being the 1983 Vivian Richards catch. Dharamalingam allows Ashwin to bat against the better bowlers. First ball, he was hit on the chest and was taken away. For 2 months, he father was next to him to ensure everything was alright.

Chance goes abegging and wrapping up it was all on the streets

At 14, his wheezing attacks stopped. He represented Madras against a combined Tamil Nadu district team in Thirunelveli, a district in Tamil Nadu, India. After that, he was picked for the Tamil Nadu U-14 team with a chance to represent the South Zone U14 team if he did well. Needless to say, he came a cropper in the 2^nd game having missed the 1^st one, dismissed for zero in both the innings. He was told by the team management not to bother to return for the 3^rd game.

All this while he had a back injury which was diagnosed as disc slip on the hip. The doctor informed the family that it needs to be surgically removed. He also said that the bone will grow in a couple of years which must be removed by another surgery. The family’s finances were not that great. They had spent everything on Ashwin’s cricket. This news brought their world crashing down.

Previous chapter

Mumbaikars being Mumbaikars. Why? Read on. Cricketers from Mumbai stick together in the best and worst of times. We all know that. Even if a Mumbai is at the wrong, they will still defend him. For them, any Mumbai cricketer will never do anything wrong. Gavaskar’s stauch support to Tendulkar throughout his career is a case in point. Whatever Tendulkar did on the field, Gavaskar was there to praise him to the highest. Tendulkar did not win a single Test match in the 4^th innings until the very end of his career.

Yet, Gavaskar did not find that as a blot in the resume. Tendulkar was one who played for 50s and 100s but Gavaskar never had any problem with that. He was the reason why Vengsarkar and Ravi Shastri had a long career. There were some talented cricketers but they were not preferred. His latest comment or observation has taken this to a different level. Manjrekar is another who finds that Rohit Sharma is about to leave a legacy behind.

Gavaskarisms

The latest in the long line of Gavaskarisms is his praise for Rohit Sharma. It is not wrong to praise someone when he does pretty well but to praise a routine event is ridiculous.

“Rohit acknowledged Ashwin’s contributions by letting him lead the team out to field in the all-rounder’s 100th Test, a hallmark of a skipper confident and relaxed in his own skin and ready to step aside and give the accolades to the achiever.”

This is something that is routine on the cricket field. Every captain and every team will allow the best performer of that innings to lead the team off the field. There are also several instances when a player who was about to play his last game, led the field onto the field. So, this is not at all new. This was also this instance of Dhoni allowing Ganguly to become the captain for about 30 minutes on the last day of his career.

Now, for such usual affair to be termed as a hallmark of a captain confident and ready to give the accolades to the achiever is height of stupidity.

Everyone does it

Here was Ashwin playing his 100^th Test. Not a lot of cricketers go onto play 100 Tests. Only the good ones go onto play that many. Ofcourse, there are exceptions like Ishant Sharma. Ashwin is a match winner who has won many a game for the nation. It really is a shame that he never became the captain of any Indian team. Just like how Australia missed the services of Shane Warne the captain, India have missed the services of Ashwin the captain but that is not the point of this blog.

For someone to has played 100 Tests and who has won most of those games, he deserves such a recognition. Not just Ashwin, every cricketer in every side, must have led their team onto the field during their 100^th Test. Gavaskar is a highly respected cricketer and a person. What he says ie keenly heard around the cricketing world. He must use his words carefully. Just because a Mumbaikar was at the helm and he allowed Ashwin to lead when Ashwin played his 100^th Test and attribute that as Rohit letting someone getting due credit is beneath him.

His anger towards Gambhir

In yet another instance, he has reached the absolute nadir, not fit to be a human. He has written that those who are giving credit to Gambhir following India’s Kanpur win, are “boot-lickers of the highest order”. He says it must be Rohit Sharma who must get all the credit because he introduced this brand of cricket but has conveniently forgotten about those years under the same Rohit Sharma when India played 70s brand of cricket. The Asia Cup failure, the multiple World Cups failure were all because of the ultra-slow approach. Can we also attribute that to Rohit? If we can, he can be given credit for the change in attitude too.

Onto Manjrekar

Manjrekar is another who is quite loudmouthed. He was a disaster as a batsman. As a commentator, he is unbearable. He has said that the attacking and aggressive cricket that India witnessed at Kanpur is a legacy for which Rohit Sharma will be known. Ever since Ganguly ascended to the captaincy throne, India have been playing a brand of cricket that was hitherto unknown to those who were born in the last millennium. It was Ganguly who infused a sense of confidence and belonging in the Indian team that they can win outside of the country. India achieved some famous wins under Ganguly in England, Australia and the West Indies who were decent at that stage. Rahul Dravid won a series in England and the first Test win in South Africa.

They could not have achieved those wins without the aggressive cricket. What the Indian team showcased at Kanpur owes a lot to Bazball. If England hadn’t shown the way, I doubt anyone would know that Test cricket could be played with sustained aggression with due credit to Sehwag or Jayasurya. What India did at Kanpur was exemplary, eking out a win from nowhere but to attribute that to Rohit’s legacy is meaningless.

Wrapping up Mumbaikars being Mumbaikars

It is time these Mumbai based commentators grow up or be thrown out of the commentary box. They must realise that cricket in India is not Mumbai based but is played throughout the land with talent emerging from every corner of the nation.

Other blogs

https://icricketcritique.com/india-deserve-to-lose-the-series/
https://icricketcritique.com/the-wisdom-of-indian-selectors/
https://icricketcritique.com/indian-openers-for-world-t20/
https://icricketcritique.com/indian-team-for-world-t20/
https://icricketcritique.com/the-world-cup-win/

That India would defeat Bangladesh was more or less a given. The series suddenly found traction because of Bangladesh’s performance in Pakistan. It gained steam on the first day at Chennai after they claimed 6 wickets for a meagre amount of runs. Bangladesh has finally arrived at the international stage. That is what everyone thought but Inia proved that they have a long way to go. What made the victory sweet was the attitude shown by the Indian team in the 2^nd Test at Kanpur. That is heartwarming for any Indian supporter who was born in the 1970s or 1980s. India of that period would not even have thought of winning a game that was seemed destined to draw. It was an incredible victory. There is no doubt about that.

Gains for India

First and foremost, was the positive attitude. Granted that it was only Bangladesh. With 2.5 days lost to rain, the game was to end in a draw. It required India to show that side of their game that was hitherto unknown. The India before 2010, would have safely settled for a draw. They would have thought that with a large part of the game lost to rain, it is better to get some batting practice and prepare for tougher series against New Zealand and Australia.

However, under Rohit Sharma, that thinking has moved aside and now, the team is playing as positively as they could. Rohit himself is leading that charge from the top. Against Bangladesh, you can try this sort of a plan. Score a breakneck speed and hope to bowl them out cheaply the second time around. It remains to be seen whether India will follow similar flexibility against better sides but on this day, this was refreshing.

Rohit said

“We had to think a lot [about] how the game can keep moving forward once we lost two-and-a-half days,” Rohit said after India wrapped up a seven-wicket win on the fifth day. “When we came on day four, we thought, okay, let’s try and get them out as quickly as possible and then see with the bat what we can do. Once they had got 230-odd, we said it was not about the runs we get but it was about the overs we wanted to bowl at them. It meant we had to try and up the run-rate and score as many as possible because the pitch did not have much for the bowlers.”

Second, is the bowling attack

Mohammed Shami is still missing and it is doubtful whether he will travel to Australia with the latest injury but Jasprit Bumrah, ably assisted by Siraj and Akash, elevated the bowling to greater heights. Akash especially, was quite impressive. Needless to say that he has already booked a spot in the Australia bound squad. Infact, if he can get a lot more wickets against New Zealand, he could even replace Siraj in the eleven though with the expected absence of Shami, both will feature in the playing eleven at Perth.

Bumrah seems to pick up a wicket whenever he runs into bowl. The impact that he has had on the minds of the batsmen worldover, is what makes him get wickets. Ofcourse, as his wont, he bowled some magical deliveries. It is an art whenever he gets a wicket either bowled or caught at the slips. India need the best of Bumrah in Australia. I do not think that he has another tour of Australia in him and hence, Bumrah will want to make a lasting impression.

The spinners

Ashwin picks up wickets as and when he wants. He is an absolute champion when bowling in favourable conditions. In this series, however, he showed the beauty of his batting. I have been a staunch advocate of Ashwin the batsman. Let us remember that he started his career as an opening batsman and later, became an off-spinner, ably assisted by Aniruddha Srikkanth, D. Vasu and others. He has mentioned written about this in his book, I Have The Streets. During the middle phase of his career, he completely forgot how to bat which showed in the average which came down to 27 from 35. It resulted in him losing the spot outside of India. More than what he could do with the ball, the perceived what he couldn’t do with the bat, weighed heavily on the minds of the team management under Kohli and Shastri.

The hundred at Chepauk, showed the true qualities of his batting. At the age of 38, It probably is too late for him to realise his batting prowess but if he could make his batting count in the remaining couple of years, he would have done well. He has equalled Dhoni interms of number of hundreds shows his capability as a batsman.

As for Jadeja, it is vital that he contributes with the bat. In Australia, his batting will be vital in the 5 bowlers theory. Off late, his returns have not been eye-catching. He is not expected to take a lot of wickets in Australia and will have to make amends with the bat in hand.

Gill and Jaiswal

Gill is an enigma. He seems to be fond of scoring runs in the 2^nd innings but his inconsistency is worrying. No one is sure that Gill will score runs. It is time he corrects his anomaly. As for Jaiswal, he is off to a good start in his career but on the 1^st morning, he got out to a short ball. Cummins and company, would have watched that with glee. If he is having a shortball problem, word will spread easily at the highest level and the sooner.

Wrapping up an incredible victory

There is no doubt that it was an incredible victory. India needs to sustain this for the next 6 months to become only the 2^nd team in history to win 3 consecutive series in Australia.

Past blogs

https://icricketcritique.com/indian-team-is-unable-to-crack-the-t20-code/
https://icricketcritique.com/indian-teams-for-england-and-sri-lanka/
https://icricketcritique.com/indian-teams-delayed-request-and-world-t20/
https://icricketcritique.com/yes-india-won-but/
https://icricketcritique.com/analyse-the-first-test/
https://icricketcritique.com/frustrating-to-follow-indian-cricket-team-modern-times/
https://icricketcritique.com/frustrating-to-follow-indian-cricket-team/
https://icricketcritique.com/indian-crickets-lower-order-problem/
https://icricketcritique.com/will-india-create-history-in-south-africa/
https://icricketcritique.com/indian-team-deserve-appreciation/
https://icricketcritique.com/irresponsible-player-and-support-staff/
https://icricketcritique.com/it-was-a-mistake-to-replace-5-players/

It is hard to believe, isn’t it? The richest board in the world, the most arrogant board in the world following the Marylebone years of England and Australia, it really is hard to believe that BCCI surrendered to the franchises. There is a reason I am saying this because of the new IPL rules. I really thought that the BCCI being so tough, will not agree to the changes that was proposed by the IPL franchises. How wrong was I? It clearly shows who is running the IPL. The various franchises may pump hordes of cash into acquiring the players from various walks of life. However, BCCI being the patron of the game in the country, must have the final say. However, it seems that it is not the case. The BCCI surrenders to franchise.

Impact player

There were a lot of calls for scrapping the impact player rule. It made the bowlers impotent because every team knew that with an extra batsman, those at the top can bat aggressively without worrying about the consequences. Already, T20 cricket is loaded in favour of the batsman. It is impossible to get 10 wickets in 20 overs and as such, scores in the region of 180 is the norm. With the impact player, it shot upto 260. Sunriser Hyderabad even had the audacity to target 300. 300 runs in T20 overs is mindboggling. It actually means that the BCCI or for that matter, none of the boards care about the bowlers.

If only this rule had been scrapped, a score in the region of 180 woud have been saner. However, it is not to be.  Ofcourse, the franchises do not mind this rule. The opposition came from the commentators and the watching public but they have fallen on deaf ears.

Uncapped player and Dhoni

This is the height of stupidity. “A capped Indian player will become uncapped, if the player has in the last five calendar years preceding the year in which the relevant Season is held, not played in the starting XI in International Cricket (Test match, ODI, Twenty20 International) or does not have a Central Contract with BCCI. This will be applicable for Indian Players only,” said IPL.

This was the demand of Chennai Super Kings alone to facilitate retention of Dhoni but release the amount that was charged to him. What sort of nonsense is this? Dhoni is 42 years old with hardly any cricket left in him. The fact that he came at number 9 in the previous season showed that he does not have any confidence in him. Yet, CSK persists with him just to make money. This is utterly unprofessional and BCCI for the sake of one franchise alone, have introduced a new rule about uncapped player. If this is not surrender, what is?

Retentions

A maximum of 4 players were allowed to be retained by every franchise, which is fair enough. They can decide on the best players to retain and release the rest. They also had the option of picking them up during the auction. Ofcourse, they still have this option but the number of players who can be retained has been increased to 6. The RTM card, Right to Match has also been reintroduced.

Ofcourse, it all depends on whether a particular franchise is willing to increase the bid price for a player knowing well that another franchise is holding the RTM card and thereby they have a better chance of holding onto that player should they exercise the card. It could so happen that a franchise will increase the bid just enough so that the team with the RTM can claim that player. This in effect will reduce the size of the second franchise with the RTM card.

The BCCI has given time till 5PM IST on 31 October 2014 for franchises to finalise and submit a list of retained players ahead of the auction.

Auction purse and player availability

This is alright. The purse has now been increased to 120 Crores. This will allow the franchises to spend that much more on the players. The players are the actual beneficiaries. As for player availability, the BCCI states, “”Any Overseas Player will have to register for the Big Auction. In case the overseas player doesn’t register, then he will be ineligible to register in the following year’s player auction.”

“Any player who registers in the player auction and after getting picked at the auction, makes himself unavailable before the start of the season, will get banned from participating in the tournament and player auction for 2 Seasons.”

This is a welcome move. The foreign players for one reason or the other, pulls out of the tournament thereby throwing the plans of the team in a dizzy. This will persuade the players to think carefully. Ofcourse, it all depends on whether the foreign player cares.

Wrapping up BCCI surrenders to franchise

Well, the BCCI could have directly accepted the proposals when they were raised a month ago instead of wasting everyone’s time.

Other blogs about IPL

https://icricketcritique.com/indian-board-determined-to-conduct-
https://icricketcritique.com/noble-gesture-of-the-indian-cricket-board/
https://icricketcritique.com/how-have-the-indian-openers-fared-in-ipl/
https://icricketcritique.com/latest-events-from-the-ipl/
https://icricketcritique.com/warner-saved-his-best-for-his-old-nemesis/
https://icricketcritique.com/what-pant-did-wasnt-correct/
https://icricketcritique.com/josh-hazlewood-and-yuzvendra-chahal/
https://icricketcritique.com/another-strange-move-in-the-ipl/
https://icricketcritique.com/good-job-by-indian-selectors/
https://icricketcritique.com/a-sincere-and-honest-appeal-to-bcci/
https://icricketcritique.com/the-bcci-have-gone-mad/
https://icricketcritique.com/a-joke-called-bcci-volume-four-various-other/
https://icricketcritique.com/ipl-2021-finals-preview/
https://icricketcritique.com/bcci-has-done-a-couple-of-commendable-jobs/
https://icricketcritique.com/srinivasan-the-cat-is-out-of-the-bag/
https://icricketcritique.com/bcci-seems-to-be-planning-their-own-the-hundred/
https://icricketcritique.com/obscene-money-spent-at-the-ipl-auction/
https://icricketcritique.com/vivo-will-not-sponsor-ipl/
https://icricketcritique.com/arjun-tendulkar-and-the-charges-of-nepotism/
https://icricketcritique.com/ipl-2021-so-which-is-the-team-that-is-hard-to-defeat/
https://icricketcritique.com/ipl-2021-and-the-threat-of-covid/
https://icricketcritique.com/week-1-of-ipl-what-have-we-learned-so-far/
https://icricketcritique.com/dropping-smith-and-rohits-fine/
https://icricketcritique.com/sam-curran-the-batsman-and-ipl-coaches/
https://icricketcritique.com/whether-the-ipl-must-continue/
https://icricketcritique.com/what-does-the-future-hold-for-ipl-2021/
https://icricketcritique.com/resuming-ipl-is-not-that-important/
https://icricketcritique.com/batting-slowly-must-depend-on-the-situation/

Ashwin the man who has been involved in several wins for the nation, has written a book in the company of the indefatigable Siddarth Monga, the respectable ESPNCRICINFO.Com columnist. He has named it “I Have the Streets”. At the outset, one cannot understand what is even the meaning of this. I have never seen anyone name their book in this fashion. It sounds ridiculous. I have the Streets! What does it mean? I thought for some more time and finally, I gave up. Until I read the foreword from none other than Rahul Dravid. After reading it, I think I have understood the meaning of the title.

It is not easy for everyone to understand unless you were born and lived a substantial part of your life in Madras or Chennai. I think what he means is “naa roadla valerntha paiyan da”, which translates to I have been brought up on the roads of Chennai. It is a typical slang that only those who have lived in the heart of Chennai will be able to understand.

Dravid’s words

Rahul Dravid starts by stating that when he played league cricket in Chennai, Ashwin was his captain whereas, he became the coach of an Indian team of which Ashwin was also a part. Dravid refuses to hold back in his praise for Ashwin. He says that Ashwin is someone who is talented, combative who made heads turn. He is also someone who reinvents himself time and again. This book, he says, offers an insight into why Ashwin has been successful. How he brought intelligence into the game. Dravid acknowledges the fact tht Ashwin wasn’t naturally athletic but he kept fighting. Earlier, Dravid used to share a dressing room with Ashwin during which he understood his deep love for the craft. Ashwin is not interested in merely finding success but in elevating an art form.

Dravid recollects a couple of times when Ashwin the competitor came to the fore. One was against Australia at Ahmedabad on a lifeless pitch where he picked up 6 wickets and kept on bowling and the other was a tight win in Bangladesh when Ashwin remaining not out. Dravid remarked, “Never in doubt, Ash, never in doubt”. Ashwin, says Dravid, has a strong opinion and will be unwilling to backdown. Yet, he will try and find out the reason why someone has suggested something.

Chapter one

At the age of 5, during a family wedding, Ashwin could not get up at all. He was immediately rushed to Chennai from Trichy, which is about 330KM away. He was diagnosed to have a primary complex with lungs. In other words, child tuberculosis. He doesn’t eat or drink too much because it makes him vomit. However, he continues to play all the time despite the coughing and vomiting. On an average, he gets wheezing twice a month with each lasts lasting for 6-7 days.

Another time, the family head to Kodaikanal, a hill station in Tamil Nadu in India. Ashwin’s father prefers to go to the main boarding point of the train in Egmore despite, Mambalam being near to the family. The moment, the train reached Mambalam, he started to vomit. The entire family got out of the train in 2 minutes and were home immediately. He was diagnosed with malaria.

Ashwin’s parents and thatha

His father, who was a railways employee, was an ardent cricket fan. He used to bowl medium pace during his time. He did not own a kitbag and used to carry the bat and the gloves strapped within both the pads. Once, they got tickets to watch India play England at Chepauk, MA Chidambaram Stadium. Ashwin has fond memories of that game in which Tendulkar flays the England attack all around the ground. India wins that game and it was made sweeter by his father who took him to get the autography of Gavaskar.

His mother worked at HLL. She worked for 6 days a week and would not allow Ashwin to go out on the street on Sundays as she preferred to spend time with her son. She is also someone who prefers her afternoon nap on Sundays.

Ashwin says that he is scared of his father who painstakingly, reads all of Ashwin’s school textbooks before he could teach him. He also goes to the homes of Ashwin’s friends to copy notes. The values that he has inculcated on Ashwin are exemplary. “You should not steal from others. You should not lie and you should not harm others.”

Ashwin goes onto narrate a few incidents playing cricket on the streets during his childhood which every Indian child would have endured. If the ball goes into the well and if the well has water, it is easy to get the ball with a rope and a bucket whereas, if there is no water, the wait will extend till the rainy season. Ashwin used to run to this grandfather for money to buy a new ball. However, his grandfather being studious, will not allow until everyone else has bought a ball by rotation.

Wrapping up Ashwin and the opening

At the age of 9, Ashwin was asked to play for a U-14 club side for a tournament in Bangalore. His grandfather took him to Bangalore. They stayed in the Karnataka State Cricket Association dormitory at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. He didn’t get to play in any of the games but fielded quite well. It is amusing to read this because in the Indian team, Ashwin will probably be the slowest mover.

Other blogs about Ashwin

https://icricketcritique.com/ashwin-wants-to-disallow-the-non-striker-backing

Ravichandran Ashwin and The Hundred

A tribute to Ashwin

Ashwin should not have warned Finch

Sanjay Manjrekar comments about Ashwin

Ashwin’s YouTube and Indian WT20 squad

Ashwin not playing & Indian cricketers travelling to America

The Indian cricket fan longs for heroes all the time. His or her favourite film stars or his or her favourite cricket stars. The list is endless. It goes on and on and on. It is not really a problem if the people follow their heroes. The problem begins when it turns into a dangerous obsession. This is exactly what is happening in this country. The marketing agencies take advantage of such an obsession and they milk money. Why am I writing about a dangerous obsession? There is a reason for this. Let me try to elaborate.

I do not know exactly when, but this obsession, atleast when it comes to cricket, must have started during the Gavaskar and Kapil Dev period. India was never a good cricket team during a large part of our cricketing history. It took us 30 years to win our first Test match. It was against England in Chennai. Nowadays, the likes of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and a few other teams are ridiculed for not being able to win games consistently. I am not going to dispute that because I am one among them and for good reason. Anyway, just because we could not produce world-class players, we were not able to win games regularly.

England, Australia and West Indies, the premier teams of the early, mid and late 1900s, did not rate our cricket teams that highly. Hence, they never considered inviting us or visiting the nation to play a series of Tests. Just like how BCCI is treating Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Ireland now. If not for the WTC, the BCCI will only host lucrative series that generate massive revenue. Well, this is not a part of this blog and it is only for information.

Anyway, getting back to being obsessed, it is not at all a healthy trend. Just like the fans of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli fight as to who is the better cricketer, so too did the fans of Gavaskar and Kapil Dev all those years ago. This sort of obsession gave a filip to the marketing guys who wherever they can get a chance, show the faces of these players. It is more or less a given that if a celebrity endorses a product, it is assumed that the product will be sold. Some of the players, though I must admit, have taken the decision of not promoting beauty products. Noble of them. Ofcourse, this is not restricted to India and Indians. It is prevalent throughout the world. I am however, will stick to India because I care about this nation.

Cricket is the only sport in which India competes at the world level. The performances in other sports leaves a lot to be desired. Till date, India have won 4 World Cup trophies whereas the only other World Cup that this nation has won is in Hockey in 1980. Cricket has become a national identity. Cricket is an unifying force in this land. Whenever and wherever a cricketer is seen in public, one can see a whole host of people going behind him. The team bus every evening will be surrounded by the fans.

John Wright, in his book writes, “everyone wants a piece of them, to touch them, shake their hands, be seen with them, take a photo of them with their mobile phones and introduce their kids to them. The sea of upturned, smiling faces waiting for a glimpse of their heroes is an enduring image of Indian cricket.”