CNN Central News & Network-ITDC India Epress / ITDC News Bhopal: Some were seeking greener pastures after a decent first-class career, a few wanted life to give them a second chance, while for some others, being good but not good enough was what forced them to locate an obscure cricket field at the weekend.
Meet the stars of the T20 World Cup debutants USA who stunned the cricket world by beating last edition’s finalists Pakistan.
Monank Patel:
The Ahmedabad-born captain of the team won the player of the match award for his half century and is one of the rare people, who shifted to basically pursue his cricketing career. He got a Green Card in 2010 and shifted to New Jersey permanently in 2016.
A hard-hitting right-hander, he also conducts coaching clinics and imparts cricket lessons to diaspora kids thrice a week when he is not on national duty. Initially, there were very few turf wickets in the USA and Monank has played a lot on matting as well as 20 and 30-over weekend club tournaments across the country.
Saurabh Netravalkar
The man of the moment after a killer Super Over and before that squaring up Mohammed Rizwan with an away swinger and fooling Iftikhar Ahmed with a low dipping slow full-toss, Netravalkar is the story of a successful marriage between academics and sports.
In 2010, he bowled against the likes of Joe Root, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, the golden batch of U-19 English cricketers, who played in that World Cup in New Zealand and ‘Netra’, as he was known back then, formed a potent pairing with fellow left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat and Punjab’s Sandeep Sharma.
However just like in Mumbai, being good isn’t enough and one needs to be the best to survive. With an engineering degree in Computer Science, the academically brilliant lad got a scholarship to pursue his MS from the prestigious Cornell University.
However, cricket never left him as he performed at all levels of US cricket to make a name for himself and stood tall with his decent show in Major League Cricket’s first edition which was headlined by many top T20 pros in world cricket.
Away from cricket, one can find him at Oracle’s office in Silicon Valley where he is a senior techie.
Harmeet Singh
Ian Chappell wanted him to be drafted into the Indian team after his exploits in the 2012 U-19 World Cup but as it was with many precocious talents, he lost his way. Driving a car inside a railway station found him detained by the cops and there were stories of indiscipline that flew thick and fast as Mumbai cricket turned its back on him.
