A break to keep for MSK

August 6: At 24 and with the experience of just two One-Day Internationals, against Bangladesh and Kenya, Mannava Srikanth Prasad was bri...

August 6: At 24 and with the experience of just two One-Day Internationals, against Bangladesh and Kenya, Mannava Srikanth Prasad was brimming with confidence when Indian Express met him in the India Cements dressing room (they are playing the KSCA Diamond Jubilee tournament in Bangalore). “I’m delighted,” was his first reaction at the Chinnaswamy Stadium.

If all goes well, Prasad will be the first Test cricketer from Andhra. “We hope you stay there for 10 years,” his well-wishers said and a beaming Prasad replied: “I’ll try, I’ll try.”

“My family members were aware of the selection in the afternoon. I called them up as soon as I got to know the news, but they already knew,” he said.

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“I have to report on August 16 in Chennai. This (KSCA) tournament gets over on August 15. So I will not have the time or opportunity to visit home before the Sri Lanka tour. But I do not mind. The important thing is I am in the team,” he said.

MSK’ as Prasad is popularly known, is well aware of the task ahead.

“With Australia and Sri Lanka as the rivals, my task will be demanding,” he said. “But I’m confident of doing well at the highest level.”

MSK’s down-to-earth affability is endearing. “I also owe it to my parents and my first coach Poornachandra Rao,” said MSK, who was blessed with a daughter only a month ago. “She has certainly brought me luck,” he quipped.

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For the Medikondur (Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh) boy, who started his cricket in his 10th standard, the tour to Sri Lanka and Singapore should spur him to achieve his dream “to become the best wicketkeeper in the World”.

But in these days when the parameters to check the quality of wicketkeeping include the ability to bat well, MSK is surely one of the better batsmen in his category. “I’m a decent bat. But I’m a wicketkeeper first,” he stressed.

About having to handle bowlers to whom he doesn’t keep on a regular basis, he said: “Yes, I haven’t kept to the likes of Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad and Anil Kumble except in zonal matches. But I think I can really do well to stand behind when they are bowling.”

Of course, the experience of keeping wickets to Kumble in the Commonwealth Games cricket competition should come in handy.

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Prasad played for two years in the Bangalore league for Canara Bank before switching to India Cements in Chennai.

“I stay full-time in Chennai and turn out for Andhra in the Ranji Trophy,” he said.

A product of the BCCI’s concept of A’ teams, MSK received rave reviews about his talent and temperament from the junior India manager Krish Srikkanth.

“This boy is superb. Shoot me if he doesn’t play for India in the next couple of years,” the former dasher had said on the A’ team’s arrival from a tour abroad last year. It’s now left to MSK to translate his potential into performance.