Teams spend hours trying to analyze the players of the opposition team, making several plans to face them. With Ravichandran Ashwin being India’s premier spinner, it would come as no surprise that teams make a different set of plans to deal with him. However, his opponents came out with a unique set of plans for him during his tennis-ball cricket days when he was a teen sensation. One time, they simply decided to kidnap him and not let him play the match.
In an interview with Cricbuzz, Ashwin recalled the incident when some members or fans of a team he was supposed to play against took him away and didn’t let him play the match, even threatening to chop off his fingers.
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Recalling the incident, Ashwin said, “When I was about to leave, there were like 4-5 guys who came on a Royal Enfield. They were muscular and big and stuff like that. They just picked me up and said ‘we gotta go’. I asked ‘who?’ and they said ‘No, you’re playing the match here, right? We have come to pick you up. So, I said wow, they have arranged for a pickup. And it feels great.”
He further added, “I must have been about 14-15. They took me to a nice, posh tea shop. A tea shop is a big cultural thing in Chennai. Next to all grounds, there is a tea shop, with benches and all that. They ordered the bhajjis and vadas and all that. They said ‘Have, have. Don’t be afraid, we are here to help you’. At around 3:30-4 o clock, I said the match is going to start, let’s go. They said ‘No, we are actually from the opposition. We wanted to stop you from playing. If you go and play, we’ll make sure your fingers are not there’. I just kept staring at them and was like ‘Okay, yeah’.”
However, the incident didn’t turn out to be a bad one for Ashwin, who got treated to some snacks and refreshments at the tea shop.
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The veteran spinner further explained, “So, we had a gala time for the next hour and a half then I said look, my father will be back from office. I got to go home. I’ll not play the match. I promise you. Then they said okay. They picked me up and dropped me home.”
