Rowland Barrington, the 24 year old from Bangalore has been the backbone of the Karnataka batting along with Vijay Bharadwaj in the absence of Rahul Dravid who is busy in giving laurels to the nation. Rowland has been in the domestic circuit for more than 5 years. Cricketfundas.com’s Ashwat Ramani caught up with this stylish opener for an Exclusive Interview.
Rowland, you scored 106 in your Ranji Debut against Kerala and thus became just the 8th player in the history of Karnataka Cricket to score a century on first-class debut. Tell us more about that match.
Yeah, that was a long time ago. That point of time, I think I was going through a good phase. I had got a lot of runs during that time. There wasn’t any sought of pressure on me to perform. So I think I did well. And, I think I have enjoyed my cricket. I’ve been lucky to have enjoyed my cricket.
Did you play a lot of Junior Cricket?
Yes I did play a lot of Junior Cricket. I think that helped me a lot to mature into a good batsman.
Is it true that you have been named after the legendary Ken Barrington?
Yeah that’s right. My dad named me after the legendary Englishman Ken Barrington.
Talk us through your entry into this world of Cricket.
I think just like any other kid in India, even I grew up watching a lot of cricket on TV and playing on the streets. That’s how I started off, and I guess my dad saw that I could play well and immediately joined me into a camp. Thus my cricket started off and from there and I also played for many clubs.
Which has been your most memorable innings so far?
Probably, the 115 against Tamil Nadu. That has been my favourite knock because it came against the likes of Balaji. I think we were all out for 200. It was a damp wicket at the Chidambaram Stadium. So that was really memorable.
Your highest Ranji score of 237 came against Jammu & Kashmir at Chinnaswamy Stadium. Talk us through that.
Yeah again that was a very memorable knock. Actually that morning, we didn’t know how the wicket would play. It looked a very green wicket and J&K put us into bat. But, it ended up being a very good batting wicket. I just took it session by session and in the end it was an outright win for us. I had planned for a good score in mind and I got one.
Rowland, I watched your batting for the first time on Television and tell you what, you looked like a carbon copy of Rahul Dravid. Is it a sheer coincidence or you are a great fan of Rahul Dravid’s batting style?
Yeah, Rahul Dravid is definitely my idol, but I don’t try to emulate him. But definitely, I admire him and I admire his qualities, but I bat in my own way.
So did Rahul Dravid himself have anything to say about your batting style?
I think he always advises me about the various aspects of the game. So he always advises me to be myself and tells me to set my own goals and achieve them.
Talk us about some memorable moments with Rahul Dravid?
I think we batted once together in a club match in England. I got a 100 and also had a good partnership with Rahul. It was just a charity game but I felt great batting with him. It has to go down as one of the best moments of my life.
Rahul Dravid was recently awarded the ICC Player of the year. How did you feel about it?
I felt really proud when Rahul was awarded the ICC Player of the year. His coach Keki Tarapore was also my coach. He is from my state, we also come from the same college(St. Josephs). So it really felt great.
How was it playing Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad in the nets… and tell us what difference you find between Top Class International bowlers and other first class and club level bowlers.
Yeah, I consider ourselves lucky, because we have top quality bowlers bowling to us like Anil, Prasad, Joshi, Dodda Ganesh. So it helps us a lot when we play other teams. The quality of bowling that we face in the nets helps us a lot to perform well against other teams.
When can we expect to see Rowland Barrington in the Indian team or the India A team.
Ahhh (smiles) good question. Lets see how this season goes. I am working hard to make it into the national team. I’ll work on my mistakes which I committed in the last season and make sure that I don’t repeat them.
What do you think about India’s chances in the Champions Trophy?
I think India is definitely going to win the Champions Trophy. If you remember, before the World Cup they didn’t do well. So I think that this will be a wake up call for them. And I am sure that they will do very well in this Champions Trophy.
Any message for Cricketfundas.com.
I would like to wish Cricketfundas.com all the best. I hope you will grow into a really big portal.