No Warrier's tale this!

All for cricket

Little did S Sandeep Warrier, Kerala’s most successful pace bowler this season, realise that his two days of being on the road just to bowl to Indian batsmen at the ‘nets’ would come to nought on Sunday when he landed at the Nehru International Stadium here.

The 21-year-old bowler, who claimed 24 wickets in five matches this season, was in Baramati near Pune to play a Twenty20 tournament for SBT but on request by the Indian team management, who wanted some quality bowlers at nets, the right-arm quick was summoned to Kochi.

But the bowler, on reaching the stadium on Sunday morning, found out that Indian team wouldn’t have ‘nets.’ Their practice was restricted to fielding drills, stretching and a game of football.

The Thrissur-born player had left Kochi on Friday noon by train and had reached Pune on Saturday noon. He had then taken a two-hour bus ride to reach Baramati, which annually hosts Sharad Pawar-sponsored T20 tournament. Within 30 minutes of reaching the place, Sandeep got a call from the Kerala Cricket Association to return to Kochi to bowl to Indian batsmen at nets.

Immediately, he took a bus to Pune and then another one to Mumbai from where he flew to Kochi. He landed at 10.00 am in the city on Sunday morning and managed to reach the stadium just before Indian players could.

Sandeep didn’t reveal whether he was disappointed that India didn’t have nets or relieved given how tired he was after the hectic travel schedule but he surely will get a chance to bowl on Monday afternoon.