Ravichandran Ashwin interview: On his book, an ode to Chennai gully cricket, and why 3 Idiots was a turning point

Ravichandran Ashwin talks about writing his journey from street cricket to international stardom in his book, ‘I Have the Streets: A Kutty Cricket Story’.

Ravichandran Ashwin has just hit a pull shot and the ball has landed in a temple next door. On the streets of Ramakrishnapuram in Chennai’s West Mambalam, street cricket came alive between four and six every evening. In the Nineties and early-2000s a young Ashwin would be at the centre of all the sporting action.

After a hectic day at school, it was the sight of a bat and ball and his ‘area’ friends that would bring Ashwin utmost joy. Some days, he would be a hero, scoring lots of runs. On others, he would have to beg for gaaji, a word popular in Tamil Nadu to describe ‘batting’. And on still other days, he would have to face the stern uncle next door, chiding him for breaking the window glass with a monstrous six.

But every day, Ashwin would go to bed dreaming of the events that unfolded in the evening and look forward to more drama and action the next day.

Today, he is considered India’s top off-spinner, has a whopping 500 Test wickets to his name and a proven track record in all formats; yet, the allure of the West Mambalam streets still holds sway. “I would trade anything to go back. The joys of being on those lanes, fighting for those 2-3 runs and the ball going into the well... all these are great stories,” he says, at Taj Coromandel, on the sidelines of his recent book launch.

Ashwin has several such stories to share in the book, I Have the Streets: A Kutty Cricket Story (published by Penguin Random House India), in which he, along with cricket writer Siddharth Monga, paints a candid picture of his days before professional cricket and the little joys in the cricket-mad streets of Chennai. “Writing this gave me several goosebump moments. Today, people don’t play cricket on the streets as much as before. I just feel that after reading this, if someone wishes to be out there in the evenings playing cricket, I would have achieved what I set out to.”

Write approach

The seed of I Have the Streets was planted in Ashwin’s head as he sifted through many novels – he is a fan of Clive Cussler, Chetan Bhagat and has read all the Ponniyin Selvan books – and also binged on the autobiographies of Australian cricketers Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting. “Reading Ponting’s book, it took me to his household in Launceston, Tasmania. When I read it, I was like, ‘Hey, this is what my life looked like.’ With my book, I wanted to be very organic and real.”