Ravichandran Ashwin during practice
Credit: Reuters Photo
New Delhi: An irate Mahendra Singh Dhoni deciding to send erstwhile enfant terrible S Sreesanth back home in the middle of a match, his 'Mankading' debut as a teenager and W V Raman's efforts into making him a potent off-spinner are some of the eminently readable stories in Ravichandran Ashwin's autobiography.
The 184-page book titled 'I Have The Streets- A Kutty Cricket Story' is co-authored by senior journalist Sidharth Monga and published by Penguin Random House. It covers Ashwin's journey from his formative years till India's epic World Cup win in 2011.
There aren't any sob stories or over-dramatization in the book but a lot of funny anecdotes besides an occasional deep dive into an experimental mind, which always wants to try something out of the box.
Easily the most compelling read was how an angry Dhoni, in the midst of a limited overs game against South Africa in Port Elizabeth (now known as Gqeberha) in 2010, had instructed Ashwin to tell team manager Ranjib Biswal to book S Sreesanth on the next available flight back home.
Reason: Sreesanth repeatedly ignored skipper's calls to sit in the dug-out with other reserves for a massage in the dressing room.
"I take water. MS drinks. Two overs later, I take more. He drinks more. Then again. I have carried more water for MS than anyone else. When I go in for the drink break, MS asks, ‘Where is Sree?’ Ashwin narrates.
"It is possibly the most neutral way of asking a question. It is also the MS way. You just can’t make out why he is asking. I don’t know what to tell him because I don’t know what it might lead to. MS insists on finding out.
"I tell him Sree is upstairs in the dressing room. He tells me to tell Sree he has to come down and sit with the other reserves."
"Anyway, on the way back from the drinks break, I am wondering how, while keeping wicket in an international match, MS even noticed that Sree was not sitting downstairs. I go back and tell M. Vijay, who is in his cooling glasses with his feet up on another chair, ‘Hey, Monk, MS asked Sree to come down."
Monk tells me, "Hey, you go and tell him. Don’t expect me to do that." "......I go into the changing room and I tell him, ‘Sree, MS wants you to come down.’ ‘Why? You can’t carry water?’ responds Sreesanth.
"I tell him I didn’t say anything. He said he wants you to come down. He said the reserves should be together for the game.
Sree says, "Okay, you go. I will come."
"I return to my drink duties. The next time I have to go with a helmet. This time I can sense MS is angry, and I have never seen him lose his cool. ‘Where is Sree? What is he doing?’ MS asks sternly." "I tell him he is getting a massage. MS doesn’t say anything. In the next over, he calls me to return the helmet. He is calm now. While giving me the helmet, he says, ‘Do one thing. Go to Ranjib sir. Tell him Sree is not interested in being here. Ask him to book his ticket for tomorrow so he can go back to India."
"I am stunned. I’m not sure what to say. I am just staring at his face. MS goes, ‘What happened? You don’t understand English either now?’
With certain amount of hilarity, Ashwin reveals how it worked like magic.
"Sree quickly gets up and gets dressed. Not only that, but now he assumes the drinks duties. The next time MS needs a drink, Sree makes sure he charges out. Instead of taking the drink from him, MS motions for me to come over. ‘Did you tell Ranjib sir or not?’ he asks me.
"MS and Sree sort it out later, but during that period I am caught in a situation in which I would ideally be laughing but am too scared to do so," wrote the second Indian bowler to take 500 wickets in Tests.
Ashwin, a fierce advocate of playing it fair and within the rules of the game, also recollected how it was his father Ravichandran, who asked him to run the non-striker out for backing up too far in a school game.
"At twelve, I am bowling during a tense climax for Rao’s Cricket Clinic, our PSBB school coach Chandrasekhar Rao’s team, against DAV Gopalapuram at the RKM Cricket Ground, when I see Appa gesture from behind the striker that the non-striker is stealing ground even before I let the ball go.
"He wants me to Mankad him. I do it. No one thinks it’s weird, and there are no protests. The coach just doesn’t speak to Appa for a week." The reverence for former India opener W.V. Raman, one of the most respected voices in Indian cricket for his technical knowledge, is also clear in the book.
"Raman and I are made for each other. For the life of me, I can’t keep repeating the same thing. And Raman the coach comes up with something every day to help me keep discovering spin bowling to its fullest," he wrote elaborating how Raman straightened his run-up from an angular one to help correct his alignment.