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Rowland Barrington, the 24
year old from Bangalore has been the backbone of the Karnataka
batting along with Vijay Bharadwaj in the absence of Rahul
Dravid who is busy in giving laurels to the nation. Rowland has
been in the domestic circuit for more than 5 years.
Cricketfundas.com's Ashwat Ramani caught up with this stylish
opener for an Exclusive Interview.
Rowland, you scored 106 in
your Ranji Debut against Kerala and thus became just the 8th
player in the history of Karnataka Cricket to score a century on
first-class debut. Tell us more about that match.
Yeah, that was a long time
ago. That point of time, I think I was going through a good
phase. I had got a lot of runs during that time. There wasn’t
any sought of pressure on me to perform. So I think I did well.
And, I think I have enjoyed my cricket. I've been lucky to have
enjoyed my cricket.
Did you play a lot of
Junior Cricket?
Yes I did play a lot of
Junior Cricket. I think that helped me a lot to mature into a
good batsman.
Is it true that you have
been named after the legendary Ken Barrington?
Yeah that’s right. My dad
named me after the legendary Englishman Ken Barrington.
Talk us through your entry
into this world of Cricket.
I think just like any other
kid in India, even I grew up watching a lot of cricket on TV and
playing on the streets. That’s how I started off, and I guess my
dad saw that I could play well and immediately joined me into a
camp. Thus my cricket started off and from there and I also
played for many clubs.
Which has been your most
memorable innings so far?
Probably, the 115 against
Tamil Nadu. That has been my favourite knock because it came
against the likes of Balaji. I think we were all out for 200. It
was a damp wicket at the Chidambaram Stadium. So that was really
memorable.
Your highest Ranji score of
237 came against Jammu & Kashmir at Chinnaswamy Stadium. Talk us
through that.
Yeah again that was a very
memorable knock. Actually that morning, we didn’t know how the
wicket would play. It looked a very green wicket and J&K put us
into bat. But, it ended up being a very good batting wicket. I
just took it session by session and in the end it was an
outright win for us. I had planned for a good score in mind and
I got one.
Rowland, I watched your
batting for the first time on Television and tell you what, you
looked like a carbon copy of Rahul Dravid. Is it a sheer
coincidence or you are a great fan of Rahul Dravid’s batting
style?
Yeah, Rahul Dravid is
definitely my idol, but I don’t try to emulate him. But
definitely, I admire him and I admire his qualities, but I bat
in my own way.
So did Rahul Dravid himself
have anything to say about your batting style?
I think he always advises me
about the various aspects of the game. So he always advises me
to be myself and tells me to set my own goals and achieve them.
Talk us about some
memorable moments with Rahul Dravid?
I think we batted once
together in a club match in England. I got a 100 and also had a
good partnership with Rahul. It was just a charity game but I
felt great batting with him. It has to go down as one of the
best moments of my life.
Rahul Dravid was recently
awarded the ICC Player of the year. How did you feel about it?
I felt really proud when
Rahul was awarded the ICC Player of the year. His coach Keki
Tarapore was also my coach. He is from my state, we also come
from the same college(St. Josephs). So it really felt great.
How was
it playing Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad in the
nets… and tell us what difference you find between Top Class
International bowlers and other first class and club level
bowlers.
Yeah, I consider ourselves
lucky, because we have top quality bowlers bowling to us like
Anil, Prasad, Joshi, Dodda Ganesh. So it helps us a lot when we
play other teams. The quality of bowling that we face in the
nets helps us a lot to perform well against other teams.
When can we expect to see
Rowland Barrington in the Indian team or the India A team.
Ahhh (smiles) good question.
Lets see how this season goes. I am working hard to make it into
the national team. I'll work on my mistakes which I committed in
the last season and make sure that I don’t repeat them.
What do you think about
India’s chances in the Champions Trophy?
I think India is definitely
going to win the Champions Trophy. If you remember, before the
World Cup they didn't do well. So I think that this will be a
wake up call for them. And I am sure that they will do very well
in this Champions Trophy.
Any message for
Cricketfundas.com.
I would like to wish
Cricketfundas.com all the best. I hope you will grow into a
really big portal.
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