Salil Ankola Benefit Match

Salil Ankola Benefit Match Latest News About Update: The Andheri Sports Complex located here is not a venue famous for hosting cricket matches. It’s in fact where movie and ad-film makers come to shoot their larger-than-life sequences. But come Saturday and stars like Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly will turn up at this modest ground to play a benefit game for their old team mate, who drifted from the cricket field to face the camera only to come face-to-face with the ups and downs of the glamour industry.

After playing a Test and 20 ODIs, persistent injuries saw pace bowler Salil Ankola quit cricket. His good looks got him roles in televisions soaps and instant success which resulted in a few big screen bit-roles. But a drinking problem spoiled the smooth transition and last year the 42-year-old cricketer got himself admitted to a rehabilitation centre at Pune.

He doesn’t want to dwell on the time he spent in rehab, but does confess that it helped him give up alcohol for good. “I’m really thankful to my mom, father and my sister. They were the ones who backed me in my crucial times and even my kid Karan. I am really thankful to them. Had they not been so supportive, things wouldn’t have been on the right track,” he explains.

When asked if his financial woes made him request for benefit game so early in life, he is diplomatic. “I was a bit hesitant to do a benefit match, and actually I didn’t want to do one at all earlier. But later I thought I should have one after all,” says Ankola while checking the final preparations on eve of his big day.

Second innings

The benefit game will see Ankola taking a U-turn to cricket. He is planning to go to the reputed pace bowling expert Frank Tyson in Australia, who had worked on his action in 1990 and try to get some scientific training before he starts active coaching.

“My 14-year-old son Karan is a pacer who plays for Maharashtra. I don’t want him to commit the same mistakes that I did. This country needs a fast bowler and I think he has the potential in him. When you live the pacer’s life, you know better than others,” he says.

When for the first time Ankola thought to start his second innings in cricket, he was wary about finances. He contacted his old friend Tendulkar, with whom he made his Test debut against Pakistan in 1989, to seek his consent to play his benefit game. Tendulkar agreed and so did Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, and Gautam Gambhir.

“I think they respect me as a former cricketer and are very glad to come here,” he says.

Devendra Pandey

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