The Cricket Monthly Illustrations

CHENNAI SUPER KING

We were approached by ESPN Cricinfo to create an illustration mapping out the journey of R Ashwin when he was growing up in Chennai, for the December issue of The Cricket Monthly. We pulled out anecdotes from the article and laid it out geographically with a few interesting details. The architectural details and the cultural cues helped bring forth the spirit of Chennai as a city and form part of Ashwin’s associations. You can read the full article here.

ClientESPN CricinfoYear2017Linkhttp://www.thecricketmonthly.com

Begin the R Ashwin Chennai Tour at ‘1’ PSBB Senior Secondary School at KK Nagar — KK the initials also, incidentally, of our author, who in Class Three at this same school regaled our future superstar with a rendition of “Tu cheez bad hai mast mast.”Next up, ‘2’ the Guindy National Park, ‘3’ the Periyar Science and Technology Centre, and ‘4’ the Birla Planetarium, where you might just hear schoolkids break out into the gibberish chant favoured by a young Ashwin on his journeys there: Askalakkadi galagalagala Hoo ha! Hoo ha!

Eastwards then, to ‘5’ St Bede’s Anglo Indian, where occurred Ashwin’s happy transformation from batsman-cum-medium-pacer to off spinner. Carry on north and arrive at ‘6’ the famed Chidambaram Stadium, where our now-offspinning youth, among other things, answered questionnaires in super-blunt fashion. As you did then, you could still find him at ‘7’ the nearby Sathyam Cinemas, with his old man, who buys the tickets. Hereabouts, if you look up at the ordained time the divine notes of Ashwin-favourite ‘8’ Ilaiyaraaja may rain upon you.

Your final stop for the evening is ‘9’ a soup stall at West Mambalam, where you could drink, as Ashwin did after matches, the sweetcorn or the French onion, or other specialities, like the mind coriantar. Don’t worry, you’ll have a chance to work it off the next morning on ’10’ Marina beach. You might just spot in “an extreme corner” Ashwin with his dogs. Don’t be late. They are gone before the sun.

ESPN Cricinfo

AN ELEVEN FOR FIELDING HEAVEN

Andy Zaltzman made a list of the best fielding XI. These players may not be outstanding batsmen or bowlers, but they have contributed exceptionally as fielders. ESPN Cricinfo commissioned us to do a pitch map of the chosen players. We even illustrated a few that played the game several decades ago. We chose a style that captured key features and kept it witty. We also took cues from old scoreboards to display the names of the eleven. You can read the full article here.