Siddharth all set to send the bails flying

it's easy to understand getting sidelined when one is picked to play for the country in the upcoming under-19 world cup along with a batting talent like parthiv patel. with the spotlights being firmly fixed on ahmedabad's junior cricket team skipper as the champion squad gets ready to leave on its campaign, 19-year-old pace bowler siddharth trivedi knows that his time in the sun would come once he starts to rattle the furniture of the opposition batsmen, first in australia and then in new zealand when the under-19 world cup gets rolling this month.former ranji trophy cricketer chetan mankad and current opening batsman amrish kotecha spoke to tnn recently and wanted something to be mentioned about siddharth, their current gujarat cricket coaching camp star on the eve of his departure. siddharth, who stands 6 feet 2 inches in his socks, was all pumped up prior to the team's departure to australia where they will be playing a few practice games. this will be my first visit abroad and i know the conditions there are going to be different, he informs. i'm aggressive and like to stay positive all the time. such words sound sweet to the ear after watching our national cricketing heroes turn zeroes when the going gets tough while playing on overseas pitches. but then siddharth, a second year b. com student at hl commerce college, is sure to take things in his long stride as he has cricketing pedigree to back him up. his father kishore trivedi played ranji trophy cricket from 1971 to 73 and has the distinction of claiming the wicket of the one and only sunil gavaskar. kishore, who bowled off-spin, claimed the wicket of the 'little master' as his debut victim. coming back to junior, the lanky bean-pole says that ever since he started playing the game as a seven-year-old, he has been a fan of bowling greats courtney walsh and wasim akram. i really loved to watch their bowling actions and the way they carried themselves on the field. siddharth is no stranger to playing for india as he had played two test matches and three one-dayers against the visiting england under-19 team. he won the coveted man of the match award in the third one-dayer after he bagged 4 wickets for 26 runs then scored an unbeaten knock of 39 from just 17 balls. on his debut game for gujarat in the vijay merchant under-16 tournament in 1997, siddharth put together a knock of 92 against maharashtra at the spg stadium, motera. he has also represented the state in cooch behar trophy, west zone in ck naidu trophy and played in the vinoo mankad cricket championship organised by the schools federation of india. in the 1999-2000 cooch behar three-day matches siddharth bagged 20 wickets and in the 2000-2001 one-day games held at pune he claimed a haul of 14 wickets - the highest tally in the zone on both occasions. last year (2001) i was selected for dennis lillee's mrf coaching camp at chennai and for the first time i saw my bowling on video, he states and adds that the former australian fast bowling great told him a few things about his follow-through. the learning process continued as siddharth attended the national cricket academy and here he was coached by 1983 world cup bowling star, balwinder sandhu, who he points out told him to work on his wrist action. indian cricketing greats like dilip vengsarkar have recently expressed the high esteem they hold for this lad who is being coached by jayprakash patel. when asked how would it benefit him to have the captain from the same city, siddharth replied: parthiv and i have a good understanding as we have been playing for the past two years together now. he was our state and west zone skipper and he knows how i bowl. here's wishing the two talented tyros the best of luck and bounce in kiwiland!