AND just like that life has taken a dramatic turn for young Vaibhav Suryavanshi. The oodles of baby fat are still visible on his face. The toys had given way to the English Willow, helmet, pads and gloves a long time ago. The batting boots are real. The game is more than real. Dreams can definitely be real too. The experience? Well, it is always going to be surreal.
On April 29, the world woke up to a new teen cricketing prodigy from India. Heaps of praise started flowing in from all parts of the cricketing community. ESPN SportsCenter, a flagship American daily sports news television program, featured Suryavanshi’s feat in the top six news of the day. In a night, the 14-year-old from Bihar’s Tajpur town of Samastipur district became a global newsmaker.
Until the IPL mega auction, he was a teen sensation who had made his Ranji Trophy debut for Bihar at the age of 12 and then went on to play for India U19. The young boy from Bihar can hit the ball hard and in this day and age, this big-hitting has turned into a prodigious art form. On the bidding table, he was swooped by Royals for `1.1 crore, making him a crorepati as well. On April 19, he made his IPL debut and he hit the first ball in the IPL for a six. A few days later, he rewrote the definition of hitting with a second-fastest 100 off 35 balls in IPL with 11 sixes all over the stadium.
Watching it from afar, Suryavanshi’s childhood coach Manish Ojha was beaming with pride. “It was a proud moment as a coach. Because you don’t get to see that kind of hitting daily in the IPL. I don’t get to see many games because the practice schedule is very busy. But on that particular day, when Vaibhav batted, it was a next level batting. The kind of shots he played especially against a team like Gujarat Titans, he single-handedly turned the game for Rajasthan,” Ojha told this daily.
While he became an overnight superstar that night, sport is a great leveller. In his very next game, against Mumbai Indians, Suryavanshi got out for a duck. And it became a talking point. That is how his cricketing journey is going to be from hereon. Every knock, every match he plays will be dissected minutely. Which brings attention to what the BCCI and Indian cricket has to do to ensure Suryavanshi stays on his course to fulfil his cricketing potential. In the astute observation of former India coach Greg Chappell, he needs to have a strong support system just like Sachin Tendulkar had when he was growing up as a player. “Sachin succeeded as a teenager not simply due to talent but because of a solid support system - a stoic temperament, a wise coach, a family that protected him from the circus,” Greg Chappell wrote on a cricket website.
As of now, Vaibhav is tied with his family and the franchise. Having started his journey at the age of four, thanks to his father Sanjeev who is a farmer, Vaibhav has had the humblest of beginnings. Sanjeev cleared a small area for him in the backyard to play cricket. There were reports of him selling a piece of land to help his son’s cricketing dreams. Today, Vaibhav is a crorepati and has a long career ahead of him.
“As a person grows older, this kind of stardom arises. But I hope he will manage it. He and his family have seen a lot of hardships. Apart from that, he has a coach like Dravid, who is his mentor and Vikram Rathour, who also has a lot of experience. I hope they will handle Vaibhav very cautiously and prepare him for the future, where he will become an asset for Indian cricket,” said Ojha.
Dravid, while speaking on Star Sports Press Room, said that the teenager will have his ups and downs and he will find his way as a cricketer. “We can’t control how much people are going to talk about him. It’s just about recognising this is what happens and putting a certain level of support around that and helping him navigate all of this attention while still allowing him the space to be a youngster,” he said, before adding, “It’s impossible to completely distance yourself from it (the attention) 100%. A lot of you (media) can play that role as well, if the media can be responsible about how you write about not only his success but also his potential failures. Let’s be realistic, he’s going to go through some ups and downs. We’re also going to have to be mindful that he’s a young man finding his way as well.”
Indeed. His family, Ojha, Dravid, Royals, the BCCI and Indian cricket will do everything they can to ensure Suryavanshi has the best avenues to grow and become the cricketer and person he wants to be.