When Tarun Nethula fished his cellphone out of his cricket bag yesterday morning in New Plymouth he realised there was a message waiting for him.
What the Devon Hotel Central Districts Stags player didn’t realise was the top-up card on the phone was running on empty.
“I got into it but, before I could find out what the message was, I realised I’d run out of credit on the phone,” the 28-year-old tweaker said with a laugh yesterday, after he was named in the New Zealand XI to play Zimbabwe in the three-day international match next month.
“I had to ask Hammer [bowling coach and Stags manager] for his phone to make a call to find out what it was all about,” the legspinner said after New Zealand Cricket selection manager Kim Littlejohn failed to contact him with the news of his selection. While his voice didn’t reflect it yesterday, Nethula was quietly delighted to have the opportunity to play at an international level for New Zealand amid talk he is the most likely contender to succeed an ageing Daniel Vettori, of Northern Districts, as the No1 spinner.
Self-effacing at the best of times, the Heretaunga Building Society Cornwall Cricket Club premier player opted to give some flight in his pitch to the tune of the Stags’ team mantra.
“As long as I keep playing well for CD, that’s all. If an opportunity like this comes along then it’s all good.”
He arrived in the Bay in the summer of 2010 at the request of CD coach and fellow Aucklander Alan Hunt to gain more game time because of a glut of Auckland spinners, such as Roneel Hira, Bruce Martin, Jeet Raval and Bhupinder Singh.
Asked what he was doing different this summer that saw him consistently take wickets in the four-day Plunket Shield competition, the Andhra Pradesh-born replied: “Nothing. The only thing different is I’m going to the gym more often to keep myself fit.
“In terms of bowling, I’m a bit more patient and I’ve been working with Shrimpo [former women’s World Cup-winning coach Mike Shrimpton, of Napier] as well as Hammer [Hamilton],” says Nethula, who wants to be adept in all forms of the game.
In his debut season, he had to bide his time with two other spinners, English imports Ian Blackwell and Michael Yardy.
From a long line of academics in the family, Nethula has frozen tertiary education to pursue a cricketing career.
His mother, the late Prameela Nethula, was a professor in gynaecology and obstetrics but died in 1997 when he was 13, so he went back to Hyderabad where his grandparents raised him for a short spell. His father, Sainath Nethula, is a chemical engineer-cum-schoolteacher in Auckland.
source: http://www.hawkesbaytoday.co.nz / by Anendra Singh, Sports Editor / Tuesday, January 17th, 2012