Kolkata : Last time Laxmi Ratan Shukla spent the New Year's Day with his family was almost 10 years back. The versatile allrounder will be busy playing club cricket on Saturday when his former teammates clash against Hyderabad in Syed Mustaq Ali Trophy.The allrounder wished his former team mates over phone from his residence in Howrah ahead of their campaign in the national T20 tournament.Although the Bagan cricketer’s presence will be at the Greer ground during their match against BNR, his mind will be in Hyderabad.
“I will be missing my teammates for sure but I want them to do well in the tournament . I had a word with a few of them and wished them luck ."
Laxmi just finished a game of chess with his six-year-old son Agastya when Xtra Time contacted him in the evening.Agastya had just defeated his father in the game of chess as Laxmi spoke his mind.
“ You need to be a good manipulator in a game like chess but I lack that skill .Otherwise I would not have been meted such a treatment ,” he said referring to his unceremonious retirement from Bengal .
"I always played the game straight and did not believe in manipulation . Perhaps that was the reason I did not learn chess during my childhood days .”
Laxmi blamed the team management (read Sairaj Bahutule) for raising questions about his commitment .
He didn’t expect someone will ever raise a question about his commitment towards the game . He also felt outstation cricketers should be barred from representing the state side . One can clearly guess who he meant by outstation cricketers in this Bengal team . His indications are towards Pragyan Ojha.
"See you are wasting the homegrown talent by inviting an outstation player to play for your state team . I am dead against such move . For anyone to be eligible to play for the state team , he should at least play 5-6 years of local cricket . You just cannot play him in the Ranji squad .”
He will be missing cheering his teammates on the ground , as he had his own way of egging his teammates on “ Look I am firm believer of enjoying the game . Until and unless you are enjoying , you are not bound to get the right result . I often to shout at my teammates – Awaaz Kar Ke Khelo , when the chips were down . I wish some one in this team will take my role to cheer the team when the morale is down .”
He has made up his mind not to visit the CAB indoors when his teammates will be training.
A fitness freak, he will definitely visit t indoors to keep himself fit “Look I do not want to divert the concentration of my teammates when they are training . ”
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