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Humble, Honest and Humane, are the three best words I can think
of to describe this young and upcoming middle order batsman from
Andhra - Yalaka Venugopal Rao. Venugopal Rao is one of those
immensely talented batsmen, Indian cricket is constantly
churning and his recent run of form which is nothing short of
classy is certainly a reflection of the far flung talents
emerging out of India. Cricketfundas.com's Venkat caught up with
the prospective future star of Indian cricket - Y Venugopal Rao
at the Cricket Club of India during the Ranji match between
Mumbai and Andhra at Mumbai and below is the interview compiled.
Venugopal, when did you
start playing cricket i.e. at what age? And as many young
cricketers, did you also have a role model, who you wanted to
emulate?
I started playing my cricket at the age of 10 at Vishakhapatnam.
Well, when I started playing the game, obviously Sachin was at
the peak of his career at that time, and he was my hero, as he
is for most of us, but gradually I modeled myself on the likes
of Matthew Hayden, VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid.
You made your Ranji
Trophy debut against Karnataka at a tender age of 17. When you
walked out to
play for Andhra then,
did you ever imagine that you would be knocking at the doors of
the Indian team so soon?
To be honest with you, yes. After being a part of that team in
2000 that won the Under-19 World Cup in Sri Lanka, I always
wanted to be a part of the Indian team, and most importantly
emulate that feat of winning a World Cup for the country. But,
it was only since the African tour that I felt I was in the
selector's books.
You got picked for the tour of South
Africa after just 3 seasons of First Class cricket. What did you
get to learn from this tough tour, considering that you only got
one chance and made only 23 runs?
To put it straight, I feel that this tour is one of the
important ones of my career so far. I was by far used as a
bowler primarily by the team management in South Africa. So,
since then, I have essentially turned myself into a premier
batsman who can bowl, you could say I wanted to prove a point
about my batsmanship. Besides, the tours to countries like
Australia and South Africa are ones that make you mentally
strong and I would say the post-South African tour results are
there to see.
What would you say was the real turning
point of your career?
Certainly, the 228 not out versus the English A team at Gurgaon.
Well, yes, to tell you more about that match, the England A team
consisted of current players like Simon Jones and Sajid Mahmood,
and they got right on top of us in the first innings bundling us
out for 178 or so. And moreover the English press was
questioning the credibility of the First Class teams in India.
So, we as a team and I as an individual decided that if there
was a chance to create history, it was now. And that's what
happened. And moreover, a score of 500 was never chased by a
First Class team in India and if you mention history, only the
406 chased by India in WI comes to mind. And I feel, its never
something wrong being etched in the history books for the right
reasons. And, after that match, the England A team was totally
demoralized and well did not recover from the shock we gave
them.
Your biggest claim to
fame was that mammoth run chase for South Zone against England A
at Gurgaon in the 2003-04 Duleep Trophy. Can you talk us through
that historic knock of yours and the two important partnerships
with Sridharan Sriram and Subramaniam Badrinath?
Sure. I must confess that we never had a win target of 500 in
mind, because those scores usually have an intimidating effect
on the players. Our philosophy was pretty simple - Play session
by session and try and reach as close to the target as possible,
and we just took it on from there. And, a time has come for me
to thank Sriram and Badri for making it possible for both me and
the team. One more incident comes to mind during that game. We
were on 496 when Badri was on 96 and as a tribute to the great
partnership, I just gave him strike to reach his century and
score the winning runs, which I guess was only just.
And since then Y Venugopal Rao's bat
seems more like a magical wand, whatever it strikes yields only
runs, runs and more runs! How important would you consider the
India A's tour of Africa?
I was not initially a member of the squad that went to Zimbabwe.
When the tour began, I was in Australia as a part of the Border-Gavaskar
scholarship and only after Rohan Gavaskar was picked to play for
India at Holland did I get a chance to join the team. And in the
second leg of the tour at Kenya, I was picked to play and all I
said to myself, was "its time to make it count" and so it
happened and it was great to score a double century against a
Kenyan international team also. It is not only important from
the runs perspective, but also from the form point of view. I
was having a purple patch, and I had to make sure that it
continued for the future games to come.
From a more broader and national
perspective, there is an intense race for a middle order spot in
the national team, if and ever it is vacated for some
unfortunate reasons. With the competition so intense, how soon
do you see yourself wearing the India cap?
To be frank, I am hoping it to be sooner rather than later, but
that's not my call and I would like it to leave it to the
selectors to decide. After the success we had in Africa, I
scored one more century in the Irani Cup, so if I keep
performing as consistently and as well as I am now, I hope to be
noticed. But, I would say, Whenever the selectors need me to
play for the country, I am there.
Your individual progress
as a player has been one of the reasons Andhra has emerged as a
side, top Ranji teams cannot choose to ignore. So what according
to you, does future hold for Andhra Cricket? Any promising
youngsters coming through?
I would say that ever since we were in the Elite Group, we have
come a long way. We have a team that has been around for the
past 2 or 3 seasons and all our players are reasonably well
settled. And we are going through a stage where we have a young
side, with the average age of the team anywhere between 22 and
23, along with experienced campaigners like Amit Pathak and MSK
Prasad. I feel that there are some youngsters coming through, Y
Gnaneshwara Rao, D Kalyanakrishna and Mohammad Faiq are some
that I would like to point to.
Do you think Andhra stand a realistic
chance of winning the Ranji Trophy this season?
Well I feel that it takes some time to build a team and as I
told you earlier, we look settled since 2-3 years. Even though
we may not be in the absolute form, we always believe in playing
to win. And we have the capability to do so. And we believe in a
simple philosophy with regards to Ranji Trophy - "Give a cent
per cent and look to improve everyday", and perhaps in a few
years from now, we could see an Andhra team lifting the Ranji
Trophy.
Any message you would like to give to
Cricketfundas.com?
I must commend you on the fact that you are doing a great job
with regards to giving good coverage to young and upcoming
cricketers. It is only just that they get their due and hope you
and the website do well to make them known to the people. All
the best !
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