In cricket, the asterisk means you are a victor. Undefeated. It determines one's average. While the world is trying to find out what drives Cheteshwar Pujara to play those marathon innings, Pujara himself has close connection with asterisk since he was playing junior age-group tournaments. His friend Pradeep recalls an instance when Chintu, as he is fondly called, scored a double-century before getting out.
For a budding cricketer, it should have been a day for celebration. Not for Chintu. He had scored a double ton and was well-set. How on earth could he lose his wicket?
Pradeep says, "Chintu's father Arvind Pujara always insists that there should be an asterisk after your score. That makes you a complete cricketer. He believes there is no high in the sport than a not out. It means you have conquered every bowler and can walk out with your head held high."
The asterisk was indoctrinated when Pujara was just three.
At the Railway Ground, the father and son bonded over cricket, redefined their relationship and charted out the stance, grip and back lift. All for the lofty aspiration - to play for India.
Arpit Vasvada and Kunal Karamchandani, two of Pujara's closet friends, claim that when he's not playing cricket, he is immersed in reading spiritual and motivational books.
Arvind retrieves a file comprising records of his son's big hundreds, starting from his junior days. There's a write-up by the late Trevor Chesterfield who watched Pujara bat in the 2006 U-19 World Cup. Chesterfield likens him to two batting giants: Barry Richards and Rahul Dravid.
"All thanks to his father, he has a neat technique," Saurashtra's long-time coach Debu Mitra said. "But during the lunch break of this match, I told him not to close the face of his bat. He didn't for the rest of his innings and scored a 170-odd."
After playing number of long innings, even today, Chintu is busy collecting asterisks.
0 comments:
Post a Comment