“Those are days that I would always cherish, those days are not going to come back.
We always dreamt about hosting an underarm cricket tournament.
We had about 20 teams,” Ashwin added.For Ashwin, his street was his “safe haven”.
“Until 2014-15, every time I boarded a flight to go on a tour, I wanted to come back to my street.
The book was about me running back to my street, which felt like the perfect fit for the whole story,” Ashwin went on to add.
CHENNAI: Veteran India offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin has placed himself in the upper echelons of world cricket with his phenomenal achievements on the international stage.Ashwin, a member of the 50-over World Cup-winning India squad in 2011, has played 100 Tests and picked up over 500 wickets for the country in the longest format. The 37-year-old has earned numerous individual accolades in international cricket, besides shining in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and for his state team Tamil Nadu Someone who has accomplished many feats during his storied career, Ashwin surprisingly referred to his gully-cricket time as his “glory days.”At the launch of his book, titled ‘I Have The Streets: A Kutti Cricket Story’, at Taj Coromandel here on Friday, the premier spinner took a trip down memory lane and spoke about where it all began for him.He recalled playing in the streets of Ramakrishnapuram, a locality in Chennai’s West Mambalam, where he resided. “Those are days that I would always cherish, those days are not going to come back. When someone asks me about my glory days, I would show them this,” Ashwin said during a conversation with sports commentator Radhakrishnan Sreenivasan.Ashwin, on a lighter note, took pride for being the chief of the Ramakrishnapuram Underarm Cricket Association (RUCA), a group formed by him and his friends. “Definitely, thinking about it brings laughter. Two of my friends have come here (for the book launch). Many members of the RUCA have been placed in the UK, the USA, but I cannot say that I am the reason for it (laughs).“We were playing together until about 2016. We always dreamt about hosting an underarm cricket tournament. We created a flyer and stuck it on the walls of several streets, with the hope that teams would participate. We had about 20 teams,” Ashwin added.For Ashwin, his street was his “safe haven”. “Until 2014-15, every time I boarded a flight to go on a tour, I wanted to come back to my street. I wanted to come back to the comfort of my house. In my 17 to 18 years as a professional cricketer, I would be lying if I said that I was comfortable for a large part of it,” said Ashwin. “But you need to accept how it is and learn to combat it, you cannot run away and complain. The book was about me running back to my street, which felt like the perfect fit for the whole story,” Ashwin went on to add.
