The Journey Behind Excellence

"No, I cannot do it anymore" - Have you said this to yourself in the middle of a 5,000 metres race? And later, regret the same while reflecting? If you have, then you must read my journey in sports and how it shaped me.

I was in grade 5. It had been 6 months since my school was shut down because of Covid-19. I was very bored. My father and I are die-hard fans of cricket, a group of people exclusively recognisable only to its members. Just as every kid's ambition changes daily, I decided to take a stand on a night of a cricket match. That night I said to my father, "Papa, I want to play cricket." My father replied, "Okay, we will go tomorrow morning." I said, "No papa! I mean I want to become a cricketer."

My father is the reason for whoever I am today and I hold nothing but gratitude to him. The next day, he went to the best academy in Nagpur and got me registered there. There were around five batches in the academy, from the basic to the advanced batch. Everyone had to join the basic batch and then, according to their progress, they got promoted to the higher batches. I was no exception. My coach used to bowl around 20 balls underarm, and that was counted as one set. Then all the players had to pick up all the balls and put it back into a tub so that the next batsman could play his set.

On the first day, my coach did not allow me to touch the bat. I thought that maybe that is how everyone starts their training. The second day, I went with double my original enthusiasm, but was disappointed again. This continued on for one week, and my initial energy was exhausted. I started going to the ground late and stopped doing my warm ups properly. I complained to my father, "Papa, the academy is a scam, they took money from you for me to pick up balls for other players." My father encouraged me by saying that it was probably part of the training.

After 2 weeks, suddenly Coach gave me the bat and told me to defend the ball. After reflecting on it now, I realise that my coach wanted players who could stay committed to cricket no matter what. He was checking if I would come with the same energy every day, even if I was stuck between picking up the balls or quitting. Sometimes, life is just stuck at one level and that is when the majority of people quit, not realising how close they were to success.

After my set, he saw how bad my technique was. My wrists were weak and I did not have the power to defend the ball. He made me do single hand defence every day until my left hand built strength. Every single day I would try my best to convince Coach with my improved batting, but every day I would go back disappointed. After 3 months, my defence became perfect. I had never been this patient in my life.

Of course, with batting settled, the time came to start bowling. The coach took the choice to train me as a leg-spinner. I failed miserably. Every day the batsmen had to be careful of my bowling. Often, it was either a no ball or a dead ball. The batsman's job was not to hit the ball, but to pick up the ball after the wide. I practiced day and night and somehow got a stable and consistent line and length.

This is when I learnt the power of consistency and hard work. If I was passionate about something and had the drive to be the best at it then nothing else would matter to me. I would not get distracted by small desires that would bring me one step down from my goal.

Six months passed, I was still in the basic group and I started feeling that I had wasted a lot of my precious morning time and learnt very little cricket. Then suddenly one morning everything changed. In one of the senior most batches, a bowler ended up injured, and needed a substitute for a match immediately. The coach who trained that batch was walking around the nets and saw my bowling. He called me and asked, "Match khelega?" I was very scared of him. I had seen him yell at his players and punish them until they fainted. There was a mixed feeling inside me, of excitement and fear. I said, "Haan sir, khelunga."

That was the first official match I played. No one could believe I took 5 wickets that day and became the Man of The Match. The senior coach invited me to join his team. That day onwards, my life changed, and there was no looking back. I observed that opportunities always came to me, as long as I remained sincere in my practice. Not only in sport but in every field.

My timings for training changed from 6 am to 4:30 am. My father used to wake up at 4, wake me up and we both used to be on the field at 4:30 am sharp. One hour we used to do intense fitness workouts. Then from 6 am to 8 am, cricket training.

Today, whatever I have achieved in the field of sports is because of these 3 years. Along with increasing my stamina, it helped me make strong mindsets and commitments. I want to mention that you do not need talent to become successful. In fact, you need skills that do not take talent like punctuality, consistency and the spirit to outlast everyone else. If you are sincere in your passion then no one can stop you from becoming the best in the world.

I know that I am a sum of the hard work of many people. This makes me more humble and motivates me to achieve more to make all of those people proud of me. I am still nothing and there is a long way to go.