Street cricket chronicles: TN - the land of idea batting, sodukku ball, and face bowling

Street cricket chronicles moves to Tamil Nadu and we were delighted to be joined by Tamil Nadu's promising wicketkeeper batsman Narayan Jagadeesan to talk about playing amateur cricket in his formative years in Coimbatore and the influence of tennis ball cricket on some of the TN legends. We also bring plenty of color from the street cricket culture in Chennai. Jagadeesan opens up about his journey from Coimbatore to the Tamil Nadu Ranji side, playing alongside TN legends, being part of the CSK squad, and about working with Dinesh Karthik and MS Dhoni. Talking points: The hierarchy of balls: Rubber, Cork, Rubber-Cork, Tennis - Mercury > Cosco, Leather First world problem of poor outfield in Coimbatore vs no field in Chennai The legend who may or may not have taught L Balaji on how to grip a cricket ball Boost-Bournvita bat, maavu bat, oil bat, oil sheet bat, modus operandi of seasoning the bats Different dynamics of sodukku ball in Tennis ball vs Cricket ball Transitioning from Tennis ball to professional cricket - influence of bat flow and the great horizontal swing Common grounds of conflict - right arm over, edged but wide, constantly changing popping crease, line belongs to the umpire Local cricket parlance - Idea batting/bowling, tough-a-podu, OC gajee, adeetail, maanga, bat-pitch, kaatu suthal Characters of the game - Idea Mani, Veera Afridi, Switch-grip batsman Imitating Dhoni-Gilchrist-Haddin, bowling like Mohammad Zahid, copying Dravid's classical leave and Azhar's flicks International cricketers best suited for Chennai street cricket Substantial rise in representation of district players in Tamil Nadu Being part of TN team and CSK squad Contrasting experience of working with Dinesh Karthik and MS Dhoni Participants: Narayan Jagadeesan Ashoka Rao ( @Abvan ) Mahesh Sethuraman (@ cornerd ) * Lead image from here Related: Ashwin talking about his street cricket experiences (From 20.57) Glossary of street cricket terms in TN Street Cricket Chronicles from West Bengal - 81allout archive Street Cricket Chronicles from Delhi – 81allout archive Street Cricket Chronicles from Karnataka – 81allout archive