The Hindu : Sport / Cricket : TNCA felicitates Balaji

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 24, 2004

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Sport - Cricket

TNCA felicitates Balaji

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, APRIL 23. Dwelling on the secret of his success with the Indian cricket team in Pakistan, paceman L. Balaji attributed his clutch of wickets to hard work. "All I can tell the youngsters is that there is no substitute for hard work. Dennis Lillee told me about the three Ws — work, work, and more work.''

He was speaking at a felicitation ceremony organised in his honour by the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association (TNCA), at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium here on Friday.

The cricketer thanked TNCA president N. Srinivasan, Sanmar group chairman N. Sankar, the Tamil Nadu cricket team, the swamijis of the Vivekananda College, and his first coach N.P. Balaji.

Mr. Srinivasan, who presented him with a silver plaque and Rs. one lakh on behalf of the TNCA, threw light on Balaji's meteoric rise, on how the paceman managed to fight back from adverse situations and his uncanny ability to "improve with every match.''

The TNCA chief expressed concern over the fact that the representation from Tamil Nadu to the Indian team was not really on the higher side. He hoped that Balaji would emulate Srinivas Venkatraghavan and Krishnamachari Srikkanth in having a long career with the Indian team.

Srikkanth spoke about Balaji's "determination, discipline and dedication,'' while senior state coach B. Arun focussed on the young paceman's "hunger to learn and improve.''

Tamil Nadu captain S. Suresh called Balaji a fighter. "You can see it in the way he bats.''

R.V. Radhakrishnan, executive committee member, TNCA, spoke about Balaji's ability to rise to the occasion, while in his message, S.R. Jagannathan, former vice-president, TNCA, highlighted the player's consistency.

Among others, N. Sankar, former president, TNCA, N. Venkat Rao, former vice-president, Board of Control for Cricket in India, TNCA vice-presidents U. Prabhakar Rao, and V.A. Parthasarathy, former TNCA secretary Ashok Kumbhat, were present.

A plethora of former India and State cricketers also graced the occasion.

C.R. Vijayaraghavan, secretary, TNCA, proposed the vote of thanks.

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