When informed that Indian batsman Ajinkya Rahane’s bat was broken in a recent ODI the first question Balaji asked was: “Who was the bowler at the other end?”
When hearing that Rahane’s bat had been broken off the bowling of New Zealander Doug Bracewell, the 36-year-old said, “Then, it is ok. My bat was broken when Shoaib Akhtar was bowling. I have preserved the piece of that broken bat in my wardrobe because the bowler was Shoaib Akhtar!”
Balaji had kept the shattered willow in homage to Akhtar.
“Neither bowler is blamed nor the batsman for the breakage of bat, Balaji added. “It is to happen and that’s how it happens. It does not happen so often and hence we can’t blame anyone for it.
“The batsman has no feelings for it. He asks for the replacement and gets it”.
Bipin Dani
He has toured UAE, Sri Lanka, Morocco and Malaysia, to name a few, and contributes to a large number of newspapers in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
His twitter bio reads: Eat cricket stories, drink cricket stories, sleep cricket stories.
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