Street cricket chronicles moves to Tamil Nadu and we were delighted to be joined by Tamil Nadu's promising wicketkeeper batsman Narayan Jagadeesan to talk about playing amateur cricket in his formative years in Coimbatore and the influence of tennis ball cricket on some of the TN legends. We also bring plenty of color from the street cricket culture in Chennai.
Jagadeesan opens up about his journey from Coimbatore to the Tamil Nadu Ranji side, playing alongside TN legends, being part of the CSK squad, and about working with Dinesh Karthik and MS Dhoni.
Talking points:
The hierarchy of balls: Rubber, Cork, Rubber-Cork, Tennis - Mercury > Cosco, Leather
First world problem of poor outfield in Coimbatore vs no field in Chennai
The legend who may or may not have taught L Balaji on how to grip a cricket ball
Boost-Bournvita bat, maavu bat, oil bat, oil sheet bat, modus operandi of seasoning the bats
Different dynamics of sodukku ball in Tennis ball vs Cricket ball
Transitioning from Tennis ball to professional cricket - influence of bat flow and the great horizontal swing
Common grounds of conflict - right arm over, edged but wide, constantly changing popping crease, line belongs to the umpire
Local cricket parlance - Idea batting/bowling, tough-a-podu, OC gajee, adeetail, maanga, bat-pitch, kaatu suthal
Characters of the game - Idea Mani, Veera Afridi, Switch-grip batsman
Imitating Dhoni-Gilchrist-Haddin, bowling like Mohammad Zahid, copying Dravid's classical leave and Azhar's flicks
International cricketers best suited for Chennai street cricket
Substantial rise in representation of district players in Tamil Nadu
Being part of TN team and CSK squad
Contrasting experience of working with Dinesh Karthik and MS Dhoni
Participants:
Ashoka Rao (@Abvan)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
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Lead image from here
Related:
Ashwin talking about his street cricket experiences (From 20.57)
Glossary of street cricket terms in TN
Street Cricket Chronicles from West Bengal - 81allout archive
Street Cricket Chronicles from Delhi – 81allout archive
Street Cricket Chronicles from Karnataka – 81allout archive