New Zealand's Kanpur connection

There were two players born in Kanpur playing the semi-final between India and New Zealand. One was Tanmay Srivastava, India's No. 3 batsman, while the other was New Zealand medium-pacer Anurag Verma, whose family migrated when he was nine years old. And by coincidence, Tanmay bowled Anurag during the final overs of New Zealand's innings and Anurag duly returned the favour by having Tanmay caught in India's chase. Were they aware that they were born in the same city? You bet.

Anurag's family moved to New Zealand in 2000 and he says that he never played serious cricket while he was in India, only after-school games with friends. After his shift to New Zealand, a friend asked him to play for his team on Saturdays, and he's been playing ever since.

"Everything was quite different at first in New Zealand but I adjusted pretty well," Anurag says. "When I started playing cricket I didn't make representative sides. I didn't make my first regional side until the Under-15 level for Northern Districts. Then I moved on to U-17 but didn't make it the first year. I did play the second year and then broke into the U-19 side in 2007-08."

If India thought they could talk shop on the field in Hindi without the New Zealand team getting wise to their plans, they thought wrong. Anurag can converse fluently in Hindi and says they still speak it at home. His early years in India made Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid his favourite cricketers and he still looks up to them and follows their progress with the senior Indian team. When he's asked the inevitable question - whom does he back when India plays New Zealand - Anurag has this to say.

"It doesn't really bother me," he says with a laugh, "but I'd go for New Zealand first. I'll be supporting New Zealand first when India visit in 2008 but it wouldn't really bother me. I wouldn't mind if Sachin scored a 100 and New Zealand won."

Incidentally, Anurag also has the scalp of an ex-Test cricketer to show off. He played in a Twenty20 game against a Masters XI in New Zealand and picked up Matt Horne's wicket. "He's played around 35 Tests, so I was pretty pleased!"