Nivethan Radhakrishnan in action for Australia’s under-16s. Picture courtesy of PCB.Source: FOX SPORTSIf having a good all-rounder is like having two players in one, then having Nivethan Radhakrishnan in your side is like having three players in one.
The 16-year-old from Sydney’s west is a part of the Australia Under 16s team playing Pakistan right now and alongside batting at No.3 or 4 he bowls finger spin with both arms.
In July last year foxsports.com.au published an article querying whether the rise of the ambidextrous cricketer would be the next big step in the game. It turns out Cricket Australia has already found one, with Radhakrishnan firmly embedded in the pathways program.
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Teenage ambidextrous prodigy
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Born in India in 2002, Radhakrishnan moved to Australia with his family as a 10-year-old and by the time he was in the under-13s he was in the system as a part of NSW’s academy side.
All along the way honing his game with both his left and his right hand – something he has been doing since he was only seven years old.
Coached by his father, the naturally right-handed Radhakrishnan first tested out his left hand in the nets.
“There wasn’t anyone in world cricket doing it at that stage,” he told foxsports.com.au from Dubai, where he is playing for the Australia Under-16s under the coaching of Chris Rogers.
“We were very dreamy about it.”
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Aside from the difficulties of actually learning to bowl with his off-hand, one of the tougher things to overcome for Radhakrishnan in his pursuit of being perfectly ambidextrous was the doubts of others.
“More than that (the practice) it was other people who were very judgmental about it, saying it’s impossible to do it, it’s going to affect my batting, I would be better off focusing on one skill and making that the best it could be.”
A decade later and the youngster looks set to prove those doubters wrong.
The all-rounder has picked up four wickets (2-31 and 2-41) and scored 103 runs (59 and 44) across the under-16s’ first two games against Pakistan and his numbers so far have been consistently impressive the whole way up the system.
Last February he took six wickets at 27.8 and scored 122 runs at 30.5 for NSW Green at the under-15 male national championships, and in October he thrived (seven wickets at 22.6) for the Cricket Australia XI in under-17 national championships.
Rather than being a simple party trick, there is plenty of merit to the young star’s ambidextrous abilities. It allows him to switch between styles to target different areas of rough on the pitch and creates an extra option for captains.
It’s also seen him catch the eye of some in India too, with the teenager spending the past two Tamil Naidu Premier League seasons with the Dindigul Dragons. The TNPL is a domestic Twenty20 tournament in India and while it isn’t the Indian Premier League, the calibre is high.
In his first season with the team as a 14-year-old he rubbed shoulders with Subramaniam Badrinath, who only played two Tests for India despite a first-class average of 54.49 across 144 matches. Last year he was mentored by none other than Ravichandran Ashwin, a man who like Radhakrishnan has always been willing to innovate.
“He loved mentoring me and I loved being coached by him because he is the definition of unorthodox in world cricket today, so to learn from someone like him who is not scared to try new things and is constantly innovating was amazing,” Radhakrishnan said.
Rayudu’s suspect action
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Given his heritage, the youngster is still eligible to play cricket for both Australia and India. The good news for Australia is he knows where his loyalties lie.
“It was probably the hardest decision I have ever had to make, maybe the hardest.
“On one side (India) is where I was born, it’s my culture, it’s my family, it’s all those people who were with me when I was really young. On the other side it’s my current life, school, education, my family now and everything I have received.
“I have always been enamoured by the Aussie side even when I was in India.
“When my brother and I used to play backyard cricket or just in the house he would get the first pick and he would pick India or South Africa or something and I would always pick Australia. Eventually I was in love with the Aussie side, so I always had that bit of Aussie in me I guess.
“Now it’s Aussie all the way…. I would love to play for Australia if that opportunity came up.”
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India’s Ambati Rayudu has been reported for a suspect bowling action that has been compared by cricket legends to polarising off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.
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The International Cricket Council said on Sunday the 33-year-old’s action will be put under the microscope after it was flagged during the first ODI against Australia in Sydney.
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He bowled two overs and didn’t snare a wicket, but raised eyebrows within the Fox Cricket commentary box for the uncanniness to Muralitharan.
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“There’s a lot of Murali in that,” Mark Waugh said during commentary, while Michael Vaughan and Isa Guha both agreed.
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“There’s a lot of Murali there. Almost looks identical,” Vaughan added.
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Muralitharan is cricket’s greatest ever wicket-taker (1,334 Test and ODI wickets), whose action was regularly scrutinised by the ICC for a suspected throwing action. He was most notably repeatedly no-balled by umpire Darrell Hair in the 1995 Boxing Day Test.
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The ICC in 2005 eventually relaxed its rules to allow bowlers to extend their elbows up to 15 degrees. Only five degrees was previously allowed for spinners.
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Now Rayudu’s action will be assessed to see if his elbow flex falls outside the parameters.
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“Rayudu’s bowling action will now be scrutinised further under the ICC process relating to suspected illegal bowling actions,” the ICC said in a statement.
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The part-time spinner’s action must be tested within 14 days, but he is allowed to bowl until the results are out.
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Adelaide will host the second ODI on Tuesday, and the final game of the series will be played in Melbourne on Friday.
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