Sandeep Dwivedi pieces together the diverse stories of 15 young cricketers who have come together to represent India in the under-19 World Cup in New Zealand in January

At the Bandra-Kurla Complex, the Ranji Trophy match between Mumbai and Tamil Nadu had been reduced to another mundane race for the first-innings lead, and the mood around the stadium reflectedthe predictability of the looming draw.

Providing a stark contrast to that, on the sidelines, were a bunch of chatty boys wearing India colours. These 15 had been picked from among several budding talents spread across this one-sport country to represent India and the under-19 World Cup in New Zealand next month. The starry-eyed optimism was evident as well as infectious, and a welcome distraction from the action on the field.

In the past, the junior World Cup has regularly proven to be an elevator capable of taking players right up to the big league, and these child actors were aware of the opportunity that could make them superstars.

Different strokes

That Indian cricket has moved out of the cities and into smaller corners is no secret anymore; even so, the cricketing journeys of some of these players are as remarkable as they are diverse. If it wasn’t for cricket, most of them wouldn’t have crossed each others’ paths, forget being constant companions on what is likely to be an exciting journey.

Skipper Ashok Meenaria, for example, is one of the first people from Udaipur’s community of temple priests to take up sport as a career, while the team’s premier spinner — left-armer Harmeet Singh — is the son of a Mumbai-based property dealer and an exception in his own family for his choice of vocation.

Meenaria’s coach, Manoj Chaudhary, says his ward hasn’t missed a single day of practice since he first came to him as a nine-year-old, and adds that the way in which he turned a docile Read more…

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