CHENNAI: It was a trip down the memory lane for Indian born Canadian leg spinner W D Balaji Rao as the former Tamil Nadu player recounted his roots and exploits and also revealed that he was hurt on being dropped from the state Ranji side in 2001. <\/p>\n
“I played for Tamil Nadu for three seasons. I was extremely hurt when I was dropped from the state team soon after serving India ‘A’ side. This incident hurt me very much as I was at my peak at that stage. Besides getting the boot from Tamil Nadu, I also ended up as victim when Indian national selectors choose (Narendra) Hirwani over me. It was rather unfortunate,” he said. <\/p>\n
Interacting with the media soon after the Canadian team’s training session at the Chepauk ground, the venue where he came into prominence playing in Deodhar, Ranji and Duleep trophies, Rao said, “It was a privilege to play for Canada and also to train at a venue where I grew up.”
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\nCanadian team members, who had lost their World Cup opener to Sri Lanka in Hambantota on Sunday, arrived here for a week-long practice and training sessions before leaving for Nagpur for their second match against Zimbabwe on February 28. <\/p>\n
“Playing for any country is really tough, especially when you move to a new country and re-establish yourself. Canada has come a long way from where it was. Last couple of years, we have been doing really well,” the most experienced amongst the Canadian player, said. <\/p>\n
On his shift to Canada, the 32-year old Rao clarified it was not due to cricketing reasons but because of his mother’s illness. <\/p>\n
“I had to choose between taking care of my mother or continue playing cricket. I opted for my mother as she is more important,” Rao, who has taken three wickets in five ODIs, said. <\/p>\n
On the Indian team, he said it had been doing really well and youngsters were getting a lot of opportunities now. <\/p>\n
Stating that he had played for Tamil Nadu for more than three seasons and then with the Railways in 1999-2000, Rao recollected the days when played alongside players like Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and in the Ranji final tie against Karnataka in 1995-96. <\/p>\n
“Basically all my life I have played in this ground. I never thought I would step again on the Chepauk ground. I played the Ranji Trophy finals against Karnataka in 1995-96 and got three wickets. Memories of those days are just flashing in my mind and Dravid, Kumble and other seniors played in the game.” <\/p>\n
When asked whether he interacts with senior Indian players, he said it would be tremendous if he got an opportunity to do so. <\/p>\n
“I had chatted with Balaji (Lakshmipathy) last evening and would be meeting Robin Singh, with whom I had played ten years of cricket.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CHENNAI: It was a trip down the memory lane for Indian born Canadian leg spinner W D Balaji Rao as the former Tamil Nadu player recounted his roots and exploits and also revealed that he was hurt on being dropped from the state Ranji side in 2001. “I played for Tamil Nadu for three seasons. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1300"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1301,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1300\/revisions\/1301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.canadacricket.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}