The influx of youngsters in the Railways team has forced Kulamani Parida off the pecking order.

He invariably fights for a place with young all-rounder Karn Sharma, who bowls leg-spin, with left-arm orthodox Murali Kartik almost a certainty in the team. For most, this would be a big reason to call time on their playing career. No so Parida, who insists that he has a good two-three years still left in him. What makes him lose his usually cool demeanor, is talks and rumours of his plans of retiring.

Parida was upset during the last year Ranji Trophy campaign, when a Hindi daily had published a report saying he and a few other Railways’ old hands were going to hang up their boots after the 2008-09 season. While two of his colleagues — Raja Ali and Harvinder Singh — did retire, Parida is still going strong and has chalked out plans for the coming season. Now fully recovered from a knee-injury sustained in the Ranji encounter against Tamil Nadu last year, the off-spinner from Cuttack has been working on his bowling action in the off-season.

“I met Narendra Hairwani at the NCA when we were playing in the KSCA tournament. We had a good chat about spin bowling. It was him who advised me to get the non-bowling arm — which was falling away — closer to the body.

“My shoulders and wrist were taking a lot of the load in my earlier action. This one is a lot better on my body as a whole,” says the veteran of 106 first-class matches.

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