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File photo of Lalit Modi© X (formerly Twitter)
Former Indian cricket team fast bowler Praveen Kumar revealed that Royal Challengers Bangalore was not his first choice in the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and how his reluctance to join the franchise earned him an extreme reaction from Lalit Modi. During an interaction with Lallantop, Praveen explained that he wanted to join Delhi Daredevils because it was close to his hometown of Meerut but he signed a paper from an RCB official which turned out to be a contract. When Praveen approached Lalit to tell him about his choice, the IPL commissioner threatened to end his career.
“I did not want to play for RCB because Bangalore was quite far away from my place, I didn’t know English, and the food was not to my liking. Delhi is quite close to Meerut, which would have allowed me to travel to my home once in a while. However, there was a person who made me sign a paper. I did not know it was the contract. I told them I wanted to play for Delhi and not Bangalore. Lalit Modi called me and threatened to end my career,” Praveen said in the interview.
Former Indian cricket team fast bowler Praveen Kumar said that ball-tampering used to be a common practice among players and added that Pakistan bowlers used to do it a bit more than others to boost their reverse swing.
Reverse swing emerged as a formidable weapon for fast bowlers in the 1990s and Pakistan fast bowlers were considered to be experts of the skill.
In an interview with Lallantop, Praveen said that players used to scratch the ball from one side to make it reverse swing but added that even after tampering, one needs the skill to use the reverse swing properly in their bowling.
“Everyone does a little bit; they (Pakistan bowlers) do it a bit more. That’s what I’ve heard. Now, there are cameras everywhere. Earlier, everyone used to do it. And everyone knows as well. They would scratch it from one side. But you need to know how to use that skill, too. If I scratch the ball and give to someone, one will need to have the skills to reverse-swing it. One has to learn that,” Praveen said.
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