R Ashwin reveals cricketing journey in his autobiography ‘I have the Streets: A Kutty Cricket Story’
“Has MS found a racehorse in me?”
“Amma, I haven’t let MS down”
Two sentences that sum up Ashwin’s adoration for MS. And his quest for validation from him.
From the streets of Ramakrishnapuram, West Mambalam to the World Cup-winning moments at Wankhade, this Kutti Cricket Story has all the classic elements. A typical Mambalam middle-class family. A hardworking cricketing father who notices a spark in his son. A mother who puts in extra work so he gets the money for kits & coaching. A budding cricketer with freak health issues. A Tatha, one similar to L V Prasad in Raja Paarvai. A bunch of friends are good at tennis ball, and street cricket. And a lot of banter. Various captains who nurtured him. Coaches who fine-tuned his talent. The school day’s crush who later became his wife.
Ash can spin on the wicket. But here he bowls straight from the heart. Cover to cover. He allows a few revolutions as he spins a few Thinnai stories of his street cricketer friends.
The legend who has 516 Test wickets as a spinner with 5 Test Centuries and Fourteen 50s as a batter, started as an opening batsman who can bowl seam. Health and injury had an early impact on his cricketing life. It was his Amma who suggested maybe he should take up off-spin. Little would she have ever dreamt that her boy would one day be one of the finest off-spinners in the world.
If it was his Amma who planted the seed on a fertile thinking wicket, it was Aniruddha Srikkanth, his captain in a league team, who nurtured him to germinate as an off-spinner. Giving him a number of overs in each match. Letting him experiment with the field positions and telling him to start believing in his abilities.
Ashwin acknowledges the role played by former TN Allrounder D Vasu, under whom he played for Alwarper in the TNCA league. It was Vasu who suggested that he should play down the order instead of opening with M Vijay and do more of his off-spin bowling. He narrates how he gave him specific inputs in a match, ball by ball in an over that drove him to become a thinking bowler. “He made me a proper bowler”.
Ashwin reserves high praise for all that W V Raman did to him. Putting him through a drill of various speeds of bowling grip. Approach the wicket at various speeds. Use of the crease. “Never allow the batter to cut or drive through covers”. Line, not length. Great piece of advice for an off-spinner.
One can be fortunate to have the best of coaches. The best of nets. The best of captains. Loads of talent. Wonderful teams to play with and against. Yet, to reach the heights as a spinner, one needs hours and hours of practice. Experimenting with each tweak to perfection. Bowling as a nets bowler in CSK to the likes of Fleming, Hussey, Hayden & Dhoni was like a dream. Realization dawned on him that there would be no validation of a good ball. And even good balls can be tonked or helicoptered mercilessly. These are professionals. It was on one such session, that Ashwin confirmed he tried a carrom ball to MS who blocked it and asked him if it was a carrom ball. MS immediately asked him the kind of field he would place for one such ball. From thereon he is taken more seriously. MS starts using him in power plays for CSK. Bowling a carrom ball with a soft tennis ball was easier. To do that on the hard cricket ball took hours of painful practice.
Ashwin narrates his entry into the Indian Team in the white ball cricket. And how Gautam Gambhir as the captain used him well and helped him progress. The kutti story does not take us through his illustrious Test career. The struggle. The ups & downs as he reaches the pinnacle. It ends with the 2011 ODI WC victory. There must be 500+ kutti stories waiting to be told by the ultimate match winner in Tests. Maybe, he has reserved it for Book 2, Mambalam to Melbourne, I have the Streets. That would be riveting.
There’s one thing that W V Raman taught him. The line is important. “Be there and thereabout all through the day” So, when he sees his school days crush Prithi years later, he studiously remembers to put the Raman effect to good use.
Ash and Prithi are married and have two lovely daughters. His most delightful scalp.
More than the joy of 500+ scalps, Champ.
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2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
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