‘We’ll make sure your fingers are not there’: R Ashwin recalls incident when he was stopped from playing – cricket

India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin recalled a harrowing experience which he went through while taking part in a tennis ball tournament during his younger days. Ashwin claimed he was held up by players of the opposite team, who went to the extent of threatening to chop off his fingers if he dared to feature in the tournament finale.

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“We were supposed to play a final,” Ashwin told Cricbuzz. “As I was about to leave, there were four or five guys who came in Royal Enfields, properly muscular and big. They picked me up and said come we’ve got to go. I asked ‘who?’ and they said ‘you’re playing the match here, right? We’ve come to pick you up.”

“I was like wow they’ve arranged for a pick-up, and it feels great. I mean Royal Enfield… what happened is I sat behind one person and another person sat right behind me as if I was going to get off and go. I was properly sandwiched between both of them.

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“I must have been about 14 or 15. They took me to a posh tea stall. A tea shop is a big culture thing in Chennai. Next to all the grounds, there is a tea shop which has got those benches and all that. They made me sit there, ordered bajjis and vadas and all that, and have, have, don’t be afraid, we’re here to help you out’,” he added.

“It was around 3:30-4:00 PM and I said the match is going to start, let’s go. So they said, ‘no, no, we’re actually from the opposition, we wanted to stop you from playing. If you go and play we’ll make sure your fingers are not there.”

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Ashwin will don the jersey of India in the upcoming two-match Test series against New Zealand. India will be eager to end the tour on a high after winning the T20I series 5-0 but losing the subsequent ODI series 0-3. The first match is scheduled to be played at Basin Reserve in Bay Oval staring Friday.