BENGALURU: A little over a year ago when Rachin Ravindra turned out for New Zealand ‘A’ during a red-ball tour game at the M Chinnaswamy stadium, it was a homecoming of sorts. The Wellington-born all-rounder’s parents Ravi Krishnamurthy and Deepa hail from the city and as a child Rachin had visited the stadium often during vacation.
While Rachin is proud of his ethnicity, he considers himself ‘completely Kiwi’. But the city’s role in shaping his career cannot be discounted. His father, Ravi, a techie in Wellington, was a clublevel cricketer and a passionate follower of the game. After moving to New Zealand in the 1990s, Ravi’s love for the sport only grew and as Rachin puts it, his father is his biggest coach. Ravi, a Level 3 certified coach by New Zealand Cricket, is the founder of the Wellington-based Hutt Hawks club, which has been the home base for internationals like Rachin and Ben Sears. In July, in the build-up to the World Cup, Rachin toured Bengaluru, Anantapur and Hyderabad with the club.
