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Journalism of Courage
Living in a sports hostel for the last seven years has automatically immunised Tanmay Srivastava of home sickness. But that isn’t the reason the 19-year-old isn’t in a hurry to leave Malaysia. Like any other World Cupper here, there is the obvious urge to play the March 2 final, but Tanmay has an unconventional incentive to survive February.
“In case we reach the final it will also mean that I wouldn’t have to sit for my BA second year exams. I have been touring all through this year and had no time no study. I don’t even want to imagine a scenario where we are knocked out early from the tournament and I am sitting for my exams with no preparation,” says Man of the Match of the India-Papua New Guinea game, whose 83 (76 balls, 7×4, 3×6) saw India record a 195-run win in their opening match of the Under-19 World Cup.
Listening to Tanmay’s, though odd, but typically boyish priorities one gets the first real feel of this tournament of teenagers. This is a congress of adolescents with freckled faces and shadow mustaches, who have been balancing books and bats for a long time, are now gradually drifting towards the game they love and for which they have sacrificed a lot. Bright prospects on the cricket field has given them the confidence to put academics on the backburner.
Tanmay was just 13 when he decided it had to be ‘bat’ for him in this lifetime. But being the son of a father—Manoj—working for Punjab National Bank in Lucknow and hailing from a family with no cricketing background, he was not given the option of staying totally away from the ‘books.’ Despite the fact that he has just entered his teens, Tanmay told his family that he wished to leave home and move into the Kanpur sports hostel.
“They were very supportive. My early memories at home is of my mother Rosi sitting on a chair and throwing the ball and me swinging the plastic bat. For cricket, I left my family and friends to move to the hostel,” says India No.3, who is the latest product to roll out from the assembly line of cricketers from the Green Park Sports Hostel in Kanpur. After Mohammad Kaif, Suresh Raina and RP Singh, it’s now Tanmay’s turn to figure in the Hall of Fame of the famous hostel which every year sees hundreds of cricket crazy youngsters, with big dreams, turn up for trials from the remotest part of UP.
For Tanmay, the initial days away from home were traumatic. Self doubts tried creeping in as he had scores of 0 and 1 in the first under-15 game he played. “Those were tough days. Away from home here, I was dealing with things on my own. But there were no calls from home asking me to come back,” he says. He continued with his daily grind at the nets, a hectic schedule that he still adheres to. “Working on my fitness in the morning and batting for roughly 14 hours in a week. In the next game, I scored 200 not out and since then there has been no looking back,” he says.
More such innings later he got picked for the Ranji side and gradually went on to become India under-19 captain. Just before coming for the World Cup he scored a hundred in the Ranji final against Delhi. In Malaysia, he has been getting rave reviews. It is being said that it will be Tanmay’s ability to switch gears and anchor the innings that will decide India’s fortunes here.
Coach Dav Whatmore talks about how players like Tanmay are better than seniors he had coached in Bangladesh. Junior selector Rakesh Parikh, who is here with the team, talks about Tanmay’s constantly calculating brain and his riskfree, technically correct approach during acceleration. Skipper Virat Kohli’s respect for his key batsman is evident as he calls Tanmay ‘bade bhai’.
Tanmay says that scoring in the World Cup is very important for him as this could see him take the elevator to the next level. “I will be ready for the big ‘Test’ if I play well here,” he says. The pun was intended when he stressed on Test, but it had nothing to do with his forthcoming BA second year exams.
Scoreboard
India: T Kohli c Tom b Amini 40, SP Goswami c Ura b Reva 58, TM Srivastava not out 83, V Kohli c Ura b Gavera 40,S Tiwary c Tom b Kila, M Pandey c Kila b Mado 24, RA Jadeja not out 0; Extras (b-4, lb-4, w-16, nb-1): 25; Total (5 wickets; 50 overs) 280.
Fall of wickets: 1-100, 2-123, 3-194, 4-221, 5-262.
Bowling: Nou 7-0-48-0, Mado 10-0-63-1, Gavera 4-0-28-1,Amini 9-0-54-1, Kila 10-0-38-1, Tom 6-0-16-0, Reva 4-1-25-1.
Papua New Guinea: H Siaka lbw b Sangwan 0, A Amini lbw b Argal 26-53-3-0, TP Ura lbw b Sangwan 15, JB Reva c Jadeja b Kaul 2, AV Dikana b Argal 1, CT Amini st Goswami b Abdulla 11, J Tom b V Kohli 7, J Kila b Abdulla 1, L Nou not out 2, JM Mado b Abdulla 0, WT Gavera b V Kohli 0; Extras (lb-6, w-11, nb-3): 20; Total (all out; 28 overs) 85
Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-28, 3-41, 4-61, 5-62, 6-81, 7-81, 8-83, 9-83
Bowling: Sangwan 5-0-18-2, S Kaul 6-1-27-1, Jadeja 4-2-12-0, Argal 6-2-5-2,
T Kohli 2-0-11-0, Abdulla 3-1-2-3, Kohli 2-0-4-2.
