It is summer and naturally very hot unrelenting ! the author writes about Mambalam gully – story is more or less in every street / lane / by-lane / santhu of Triplicane, Mylapore and more. One can relate what he writes as most of us have had the experience of playing street cricket when Sun scorched – he writes:
‘the lamp post is our wicket at striker’s end; at non-striker’s end, just a stone!’ – which brings another dimension – ‘current’. If you collect a throw with your foot on the stone, it qualifies as ‘breaking the wicket’ for run out – so no need for direct hits or accurate throws ! Unlike professional Cricket, we allow last man to bat with a non-striker runner. There is another variation that gives the batter a huge advantage. When they bat without a non-striker, they can be run-out only at the end they are running towards. In our street, runs can be scored only on the off side. If you hit over the walls and into the house, you are out ! There are matches between streets!
An offbreak is a delivery that pitches and turns
from off to leg for the right hand batter.
Offspin is an art built on offbreaks, but one that needs variations of
speed, trajectory and turn to create deception.
To me, offspin bolwing – or spin bowling for that matter –is about
spinning the ball as hard as I can. Grip
it deep in my finders impart revolutions on it and have the right fields for
what you are trying to do. The first bit
of deception is created in the air. When
I impart so many revolutions to the ball, it drifts away from the right hand
batter, drops late and lands before they expect it to. That creates a gap between their eyeline and
their bat, creating an inside edge, which hits the pad and lobs off for a
bat-pad catch, my most common dismissal.
In Triplicane, Cricket is another religion ~ Cricket bakhts would nonchalantly talk not only about Tony Lewis’s England; Clive Lloyd’s Windies – in the same breathe about Buchibabu, CB Selvakumar breezy innings in Hindu trophy and of some great innings played at Beach cricket ! Morappakam Josyam Gopalan (a Triplicanite) delivered the first delivery in Ranji trophy - CR Rangachari who sent George Headley’s stumps flying was another.
For every visitor, Marina beach offers cool breeze and a serene atmosphere. For some of those who are middle aged, it brings memories of beach cricket. Until 2009, Marina beach played host to cricket matches, many of them played simultaneously on its sands. The beach has been a cradle for many great cricketers. They would hone their cricketing skills playing on its sands. Beach matches would forge great friendships. Triplicanites would play on the beach for hours. Beach cricket had its own rules, which were often tweaked to suit the wind. There used to be three-day matches and matches of shorter durations as well. As in the IPL, most players were loyal to their teams. Occasionally, some transfers occurred. Many shops at the beach thrived because of these cricketers.
On a
different note, Dr T. S. Ramaswamy is a well known person in Thiruvallikkeni. He is a Senior Lawyer respected for his legal
acumen and his friendly attitude towards one and all. Over the years he has endeared himself to
all. He has promoted and has been part
of many Socio religious groups including Probus Club, Thirumal Adiyar Kuzham
and more. He has done yeoman service to Srivaishnavism and has been a champion of Thennacharya
Sampradhayam. In his early age, he has
organized coaching camps and has been instrumental in training some good
cricketers. He has patronized many scholars
and is always keen on doing something for the Society, especially in the field
of education. Age was not a deterrent to
his learning and in his 70s he completed a degree course in Vaishnavism in
University of Madras. His Sadhabhishegam
[81st Birthday] was celebrated at Triplicane in July 2011. So he would be 93+ now !
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The 2nd and 3rd paras above are excerpted from the book “I have the Street – A kutti Cricket Story’ of Ravichandran Ashwin. Something more from that book –
India play against West Indies in an ODI match at Chepauk as part of preparations for the World Cup later in 2007. I am asked to bowl at the nets for both teams. International teams invite local bowlers to bowl in the nets because they don't want to exhaust their own bowlers before the actual match. This is my first such invitation. I am excited at the prospect of bowling to Chris Gayle, Brian Lara, my hero Sachin Tendulkar, and the hottest name in Indian cricket today, MS Dhoni. I have read about how Imran Khan plucked Waqar Younis out of a nets session even before he had started playing proper domestic cricket. Appa has told me how Kris Srikkanth impressed Sunil Gavaskar in a local game, and that's how he ended up playing for India. These thoughts are not entirely out of my mind. I am going to be bowling in flesh and blood to players I have dreamed of playing with and against.
All through his career Ashwin has been a cricket nerd with a deep appreciation of the nuances of the game and an acute knowledge of his craft. Born in Sept 1986, he debuted against West Indies at Delhi in Nov 2011. His success was desperately needed by India in the time after Anil Kumble retired and Harbhajan Singh was on the wane. Ashwin took nine wickets in his maiden Test, in which he was Player of the Match.
The book is replete in great style very much in tune with his classy Cricket, RAvichandran Ashwin has 516 Test wickets in 100 tests / 189 innings; 156 in 116 ODIs and 72 in 65 OIDs – add 3309 runs in tests; 707 in ODIs and 184 in T20Is. 5 Test hundreds – a true legend.
One may think that these phenomenal achievements came sort of easily, nay, after reading the book, one understands the struggle that he underwent at every stage – right from his school days, fighting his ordinary health, tough competition, sometimes poor / biased treatment, and getting into trouble because of his brain and his knack of picking up nuances and sometimes complexities. We feel that life has not been all that kind and many administrators / Captains have not treated him properly. Hope he is given the right amount of games and ends up completing 700 Test wickets and have a go at the summit too.
Ash you are a real hero! – not only your Cricket, your acumen, your thoughts, the plain candid expressions, and writings standout – just as this brilliant piece of advice : and what an insight and advice . Worship your heroes from a distance; when you get close to them, be good enough to be one of them.
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In page 8 – Ash writes about TS Ramaswamy, owner of the club for which he played earlier and the encouragement and monetary gifts that TSR showered on his wards ad how Ashwin won Rs.500/- for his excellent fielding in a tournament at Chinnaswamy stadium, Bengaluru.
A very interesting
book indeed and I enjoyed reading : “I have the Street – A kutti Cricket Story’ of Ravichandran
Ashwin.
With regards – S Sampathkumar
27.7.2024
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