CHENNAI: Star off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has released his autobiography “I Have the Streets: A Kutty Cricket Story”, co-written by Sidharth Monga on Friday here at Taj Coromandel, Chennai.
The Penguin Random House India (PRHI) announced on June 3 about the release of Ashwin’s autobiography. The book captures the journey of the 37-year-old cricketer from Chennai who went on to achieve significant laurels for the country.
Speaking at the book launch event about the idea around which the book revolves, Ashwin said, “I wanted this book to be a reel of expressing my thoughts and creativity. I found it satisfying during the course of writing this book, and I’m a big fan of novels.”
On choosing Sidharth as co-author for the book, he said, “Interestingly I tried with four to five people, and I didn’t feel very satisfied. I loved the way Sidharth Monga wrote his articles and the way he uses sarcasm, it had a connection with me. I have spoken a lot about cricket with him but he has never written a book. Then I spoke to Sambit Bal and he spoke with Sidharth, and everything fell into place.”
Ranked as one of India’s premier Test bowlers, Ashwin is acclaimed for his remarkable feats, notably becoming the quickest to achieve 300 Test wickets and picking 500 wickets in the long format for which he was felicitated earlier this summer at Chepauk.
The autobiography delves into his childhood struggles with health issues, the relentless support of his family, and the joy of growing up in a cricket-obsessed neighbourhood in Chennai.
Throughout the book, there are a lot of instances of Ashwin looking back at the street cricket where he felt the love most.
“It was the bare truth, I started travelling with the Indian team in 2009, and Tamil Nadu felt like a much safer haven for me, that Ranji trophy dressing room. I’ve always wanted to run back home to my friends and family till like 2015. Of course as time passed by I adapted to the changes and now I got comfortable with things as I know what is coming,” he opined.
The book has several Tamil movie references and anecdotes for which Ashwin praised Sidharth’s homework into executing it.
“All of those movie references you read, Sidharth did his homework and he asked me what movies mean to me. And I’m not just a fan when I’m watching movies, I feel that the medium teaches you powerfully.” Referring to the movie plot of actor Vijay’s ‘Ghilli’, he said, “Whether you want to choose kidnapping Trisha from Madurai or you want to cherish the friendship that Vijay maintains in the movie is your choice and I chose the latter,” he added.
The book is set to come in three parts with Ashwin mentioning that the second part is almost written and a date is yet to be finalised for its release.