“Just like that I have stopped signing autographs these days,” he says as he gives a faint glimpse of that famous toothpaste-add grin. These days he is more pre-occupied with the latest injury problem. After his osteitis pubis — a part of the abdomen that connects four muscles — was healed, the latest scare has made Balaji skeptic. “Actually I myself have no idea about the extent of my injury. It is all very confusing and certainly frustrating,” he says.

But there are some around who are ready to give a time frame. Dr H Natarajan, the joint secretary of TNCA, says that “Balaji would need at least six months to take a ball in his hand and bowl. The stress fracture of the back has been detected and he will go for surgery soon. He is in constant touch with Gloster and we will decide if he needs to go abroad or get it done here,” he says.

Tamil Nadu selector and the former member of the national selection committee V B Chandrashekhar rounds the fingers of both his hands and with click-sound talks about the slit spine. “It is really sad and right now no one has any idea when he can return. A bright career hindered by injury is truly tragic,” he says.

Many around here even question the way Balaji has been handled but since it is a touchy issue the anonymity factor creeps in. “The problem with him is the action. Maybe, he will be healed but if he sticks to the same action he will be injured again. A proper rehabilitation is what he needs. But this is a scare certainly and chances are we might never ever see the Balaji of the old,” says someone who is in the know of things.

... contd.