Ravichandran Ashwin is as good with his words as he is wtih his skills on the cricket field. And he makes no attempts to hide it. You would rarely find a dull moment when Ashwin speaks. He has this rare talent – one among many and we are not even talking about his off-spin bowling or batting – of entertaining the listeners by keeping them engaged. It’s not that he is constantly imparting knowledge as a ‘know-it-all’. An occational joke here, a few cheeky jibes there, a revealation somwhere in between – He just knows the perfect mix. His media interactions and YouTube channel are the biggest proof. But despite all this, Ashwin at the fag end of his career, felt he needed to tell people who he really is. He nedeed to debunk some myths. And in came “I Have The Streets: A Kutty Cricket Story.”
Ashwin’s memoir was released in July this year, some five months before he announced his retirement from international cricket in the middle of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Currently in Chennai, Ashwin, who played only one of three Tests in Australia before calling it quits, was asked more about his book in a Sky Sports podcast by former England captain Michael Atherton. Ashwin said he wanted people to know the person that he is, as it often gets lost while playing cricket.
One of the biggest myths about him, Ashwin said, was that people thought he was very serious and didn’t enjoy the game as much as Virat Kohli did.
“I wanted people to know me for who I am, because a lot of times, Ashwin’s picking up a wicket and Virat Kohli is all over the place. He’s just jumping about and people very often tend to believe that Ashwin’s the one that’s absolutely serious and Virat’s the one that’s having all the fun, which is why somebody asked me the question, why are you serious all the time? My answer to that in the first place is I’m never a serious person, but when somebody is clobbering me and I have the ball in my hand to win a Test Match for my country, my mind is sticking, because I’m in the process,” Ashwin said.
Ashwin, who has 37 five-wicket hauls – the most by an Indian in Test cricket aong with 11 Player of the Series awards – the most in Test cricket – said he never quite celebrated his milestones extravagantly. He would never blow kisses to his wife sitting in the stands after getting to a milestone, he said.
“So very often, you don’t see me picking up a five-wicket haul and pushing across a kiss through the blade of my bat to my better half sitting in the dressing room or sitting in the hospitality box. So I felt like a lot of who I am got diluted in the fact of what I’ve become. So I wanted to bring that out in my book,” Ashwin said.
‘I’m the MVP of my cricket’: Ashwin
India’s second-highest wicket-taker across formats with 765 wickets said India cricket has been blessed with legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma but he believes it would be extremely wrong to sideline the other members as a “support cast” because cricket is a team sport and he would always remain the Most Valuable Player (MVP) in his story.
“A lot of people talk about, when they talk about Indian cricket, that’s one thing I want to change over the years. They talk about Virat Kohli, they have been talking about Rohit over the years. When I grew up, I spoke a lot about Sachin, I spoke about other superstars, the celebrities. One message I would leave for everybody and I want to constantly change is that it’s not the fact that these are glorious cricketers but people on the outside who believe that everyone plays a support cast are extremely wrong because this is a sport. An MVP in my life, for my dad or for my mom, I am the MVP. It’s not Rohit, Virat or somebody on the outside, likewise, everyone’s journey is unique. For me, I have always been the MVP and I am the MVP of my cricket,” he added.
