International cricket can be an unforgiving place and many cricketers can lose their way and hit upon hard times which can make the diehard cricket fan emotionally moved. There are many such stories that have caught the imagination of the fans. The likes of Chris Cairns of New Zealand who had to take to cleaning bus shelters or former off-spinner Arshad Khan who was driving taxis in Australia are such examples. Another former international cricketer who played for Sri Lanka has now been spotted driving bus in Australia.
The story as it developed
Suraj Randiv the former Sri Lankan off-spinner was recently spotted driving a bus in Australia. The 36-year-old former Sri Lankan off-spinner who played the 2011 world cup final against India was also was part of the IPL for Chennai Super Kings. Randiv drives for a French transport company which goes by the name of Transdev which hires drivers from various backgrounds. Apart from Suraj Randiv fellow Sri Lankan Chinthaka Jayasinghe and Zimbabwean Waddington Mwayenga also is part of the company.
An early promise and an early departure
Suraj Randiv played 12 test matches for Sri Lanka and scored 147 runs with the bat and picked 43 wickets with one five wicket haul. In 31 ODI games for the island nation Randiv picked 36 wickets with best figures of 5 for 42. He also played 7 T20 games for Sri Lanka and picked 7 wickets while in the 8 IPL games he was part of he picked only 6 wickets. Randiv played his last international game for Sri Lanka against England in an ODI in 2016.
Suraj Randiv a net bowler for Australia
During the recent India tour of Australia, the Cricket Australia had decided to rope in Randiv as a net bowler, the 36 year old still plays club cricket in Australia and decided to use his experience to get the Australian team ready for the Indian spin assault. Speaking about the experience Randiv said I was asked by CA to come and bowl against their bowlers and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity” Jayasinghe is also a former Sri Lanka international who has played few T20 international games while Mwayenga too was part of the Zimbabwe squad for a while.
Kept thinking about how this net bowler has the exact same action as former Sri Lankan office Suraj Randiv and turns out it’s Suraj Randiv himself #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/qIz6SrZ79Q
— Bharat Sundaresan (@beastieboy07) December 23, 2020