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In a cricket frenzied nation as ours, where the sport is worshipped, the competition to breakout to the top automatically gets difficult. Almost everyone, who has represented India at some point of their cricketing journey, has gone through such hardships. (IPL 2022 full coverage)
One among such star is Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson, who not only had to take the grueling route of intense practice everyday but also had to switch states to pursue his goal.
The 27-year-old, who has shown good composure in the ongoing edition of the Indian Premier League, opened about his journey in the latest episode of Breakfast with Champions.
Sanju started training in Delhi when he was just five-six years old along with his elder brother. However, with luck not working in their favour, his father, who himself was part of the football team in Delhi Police, took a bold step and decided to send them to Kerala.
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“There’s too much competition in Delhi as cricket is played at almost every corner. So we gave trials couple of times but it didn’t work out so my father said we are from Kerala, and we will play from there.”
“Suddenly in one month’s time, we quit school and shifted to Kerala. My mom argued ‘let them pass 10th grade, who will give admission in Kerala?’ But my father remained firm on this decision,” said Sanju.
Both Sanju and his brother struggled to get enrolled in any of the schools in Trivandrum for a month or two before they finally got admission in St. Joseph school.
Their father, who kept himself in Delhi, then joined his family as Sanju made no very minimal progress in cricket, forcing him to take voluntary retirement.
“After a couple of years when I didn’t play anything, he took voluntary retirement and moved to Kerala. He then started taking us out for practice in the morning and evening. We used to travel in a two-wheeler, it was a challenging phase but at that time our father and mother didn’t make us realize that we are struggling for you,” he further said.
“But when you’ve matured enough and understand a lot of things about different situations in the family, I realised it was a very bold decision by both of them and sacrificed a lot for us.”
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He also recalled incidents of being ridiculed by naysayers on the streets when he was a kid and either of his parents used to accompany him to the bus stands with the huge kitbag.
“When we were playing in Delhi, my mother and father would carry our kitbags to the bus stand as it was heavy. People use to ridicule us from behind by calling, ‘oye Sachin aur uske papa mummy ja rahe hai, Bhai yeh banega Tendulkar’,” he added.
“So my parents actually have faced many such moments.”
The right-handed batter has so far represented India in one ODI, and 13 T20Is. Apart from his exploits with the Indian team, he has often been hailed as one of the most talented players in IPL, in which he has made over 130 appearances.
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