"We were on the road for 4 and a half fours" - Former India batter opens up on decision to move to Dubai due to Bengaluru traffic

Former India batter Robin Uthappa has shared that he decided to move to Dubai from Bengaluru since he felt that bringing up his kids in a city notorious for its traffic jams would be unfair. He added that getting stuck in heavy traffic while taking his daughter to a clinic was the last straw on the camel’s back.

The IT city of Bengaluru is infamous for its traffic. And while the issue has inspired some funny memes, on a rather serious note, it has given the people of the city a lot of trouble.

During his appearance on the Cyrus Says podcast, Uthappa candid confessed that he made the decision to shift base from Bengaluru to Dubai to ensure his children don't suffer due to the traffic woes. He said:

"I've left my beloved city because it just felt like unfair to the kids to raise them in a place they spend half their lives in the traffic. That is genuinely the reason."

The 39-year-old went on to elaborate about an incident where he and his family were on the road for four and half hours due to horrible Bengaluru traffic.

"Our daughter Trinity was going through some challenges immediately after child birth. We had to take her (for some treatment). She had 10 sessions and during one of the sessions... The clinic is three and a half kilometers from where I live. It took me 45 minutes to get there and then it took us an hour and a half to get back."

"We planned it in a way where we felt like, 'okay, it will be take about two, two and a half hours including the one hour of therapy'. We planned it such, so the milk we carried was for that amount of time. We were on the road for four and a half fours. We were like - what the heck. And I was like, 'that's it, we've got to figure something out'," Uthappa concluded.

The former India cricketer, who announced his retirement from all forms in September 2022, now works as a commentator and cricket expert. His Instagram bio says that he is also a certified life coach.

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Robin Uthappa's stop-start career for Team India

Uthappa made a memorable debut for India, hammering 86 off 96 balls against England in an ODI in England in April 2006. A couple of games later, he slammed 70 off 41 against West Indies in Chennai, clobbering 11 fours and two sixes.

Despite being a part of India's 2007 T20 World Cup squad, the right-handed batter failed to establish himself in the team. He ended up playing 46 ODIs and 13 T20Is, notching up seven half-centuries in international cricket.