Prithvi Shaw, captain of India's U-19 World Cup team. (Photo: PTI)
MUMBAI: Prithvi (Shaw) has a great talent. In fact he is a gifted player. He also has very good leadership qualities. But, it would be too early to compare him with Sachin (Tendulkar), Raju Pathak, who coached the U19 captain during his school days told the New Indian Express here on Saturday.
“Prithvi has tremendous potential. He has God’s gift. But, Sachin is the God of the cricket. I’ll appeal cricket fans to not to compare Prithvi with Sachin. That would be too early,” Pathak said while reacting to social media frenzy that the Mumbai has given second Sachin to the Indian Cricket.
“I’ve no doubts that he will make his place in the Indian Cricket Team. He has an amazing grasp of the cricket. He learns the things in minutes what takes others weeks,” Pathak said adding that he has good leadership qualities that have been well proven since the school days as he has lead most of the teams he had played with since those days.
While commenting on today’s match Pathak said that it is like the whole universe helps when a great thing is about to happen.
“He had a very good balanced team. All the three departments of the team were at their best level. Moreover they got the great Rahul Dravid as their coach. All such factors have come together in their victory,” Pathak said.
“Pathak trained Prithvi while he was at the Rizvi school at Bandra. He was the first one to recognize Prithvi’s talent and groom him to be able to play at the international level,” said Shiv Sena MLA Sanjay Potnis, who played a great role in supporting and grooming Prithvi.
“Prithvi was hardly 7 years when I spotted him. I still remember the first day when he came to us. I wanted to test him and hence I asked him to go the junior player’s net. He seemed unhappy. He even asked me to send him to the senior’s net but I refused. But, when I saw him playing I realized my mistake and then started coaching him along with the senior players, whom he easily surpassed,” Pathak said in voice filled with pride.
While recalling best of the moments of his career till now, Pathak recalled the game in 2013 when Prithvi had scored 546 runs.
“There was a time constraint. We wanted the runs to be scored fast to win the match. Prithvi sensed the situation and went on to score it at the fastest. That was indeed his greatest achievement till now,” Pathak said.
For Prithvi’s father Pankaj the day is of great joy. But, he is also too shy to face the media. When the news of the U19 team’s victory broke in Pankaj’s phone started ringing. He responded a couple of initial calls but then started avoiding all the calls. After a great persuasion by Potnis when he finally agreed to speak, overwhelmed by emotions he could only say, “This moment is of great joy to us. I now wants him to play for the Indian cricket team.”
It is a long journey for Prithvi from a humble background at Virar to the highs of Maunganui. “He was left alone after he lost his mother early in his childhood. He had three sisters. But, all of them had got married by then. His father was a hawker. Those were really very tough days. He used to practice alone with a rubber ball at home for hours that is when his father sensed his talent and brought him to Bandra. He had been living with us for around Nine years during his schooling before moving in to the house given to him by the Indian Oil Corporation,” Potnis said.
