The feats of Raiphi Vincent Gomez of Nanthencode and P Prasanth of Kesavadasapuram become commendable given the fact that the only other Kerala player in the squad is S Sreesanth.
The coaching camp commences on Saturday. While Raiphi was handpicked by the team for his reputation of being a flamboyant batsman (Raiphi holds the record for the fastest half century in a List A match, that he scored against Hyderabad in the Vijay Hazare tournie at Chennai last year), Prasanth battled it out against 40 aspiring cricketers from South India to to earn his place in the squad.
Raiphi and Prasanth are no strangers to cricket lovers here, with both being members of the Kerala Ranji team for the past five years. Also, they have been training under coach Biju George at the Medical College ground in the city.
On Wednesday, the lads looked calm and composed, despite being selected to be part of one of the biggest sporting extravaganzas in the world, when ‘Expresso’ caught them chilling out at a plush restaurant in the city.
The wisdom of experience subdued their excitement level. Each of them had clear and distinct expectations from his upcoming stint with the Kochi team. ‘’The thought of sharing the dressing room with the greatest wicket-hunter ever, Muthaiah Muralitharan, is just like a dream come true. I am looking forward to learning new lessons under the master,’’ says Prasanth, who himself is a slow left arm spin bowler.
Each of the senior players has his distinctive feature that a youngster would want to imbibe, like the wicket-taking ability of Muthaiah Muralitharan, the perseverance of V V S Laxman, who could single-handedly win matches for the team, the leadership quality of Mahela Jayawardene and the explosive batting style of Brendan McCullum, says Prasanth.
Raiphi also echoed the same thoughts but put them in a different perspective. ‘’Every player has a different style. But there is no point in blindly following styles. What has to be followed is the way these seniors use their experience to pull out their team from crunch situations,’’ he says.
Having said so, both Raiphi and Prasanth, who are pragmatic in building their careers, have decided to take one step at a time and focus on giving their best at the coaching camp, presently, rather than dreaming of being at the centre of jam-packed galleries.
source:expressbuzz.com
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