Tamil Nadu’s man in the middle

It was not that India had too many left-handed batsmen around then in the top order but in a batting line-up that included Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, V V S Laxman and Ganguly, the only slot in either the Test or ODIs, the weakest slot was No 6 and in Tests probably a partner to Sehwag because Tendulkar batted at No 4. Badani used to bowl leftarm too like his TN predecessor Woorkeri Raman, though, of course, the latter was more flexible as he could bat as an opener and in the middle-order. The batting line-up of the 1990s for India was not as formidable as it was 10 years later. But the 40-year-old Badani, who donned the role of a coach for Chepauk Super Gillies in TNPL, does not want to dwell on trivia such as timing or other factors that might have helped him in his career. He is happy with what he got and does not think too much about factors that were not in his control. 

“Look, it is all about making the most of your chances,” he says. “If I start looking at those might-havebeens, what would a Rajinder Goel or a Padmakar Shivalkar (Bedi’s left-arm spin contemporaries) done? They could not even play for India,” wonders Badani. He was extremely elated to play for India and that too in the famous Australian series in 2001. 

“I had dreamt of playing for the country and I got a great chance to be part of that team, though I did not get to play in the eleven. We beat Australia, ending their 17-match win-streak. And that was a team more like the dominant West Indies of the late 1970s and early 1980s,” recalls Badani. 

Badani, who started his career for India under-19 in 1995, against South Africa made it to the Tamil Nadu Ranji Trophy team the same year on the back of the tons of runs he had scored against the Proteas. “I must thank the Tamil Nadu Cricket Association for the break that I got because we had the right system in place then,” says Badani.

Interestingly, Badani’s early career had some deviations from the text. He wanted to be a left-arm fast bowler but his coaches told him that he was too short for his trade. “Surprisngly, I grew taller by 11 inches (to the current 6”1’ frame) in the next one year or so. But by then I thought I would stick to spin as I wouldn’t have to run hard as a fast bowler. I did the left-arm spin quite a bit for TN,” says Badani, whose career highlight is the century he had scored against Australia in a One-Day International. Badani had played only under Sourav Ganguly as captain and he rates him as a hard and respectable leader. 

“In fact, India is blessed with three amazing captains in the last 15 years or so. “If Ganguly turned the boys into men, MS Dhoni made them a world-beating combination. Kohli has taken them a notch higher,” notes Badani, who is busy in the next two months conducting a tournament sponsored by Lakshmi Vilas Bank for the under-14 boys in the state.