From being sent home to being MVP: Mangesh Yadav’s club-cricket turning point

The grind of club cricket is intense and tests the best. However, there is far more to what happens on the pitch. The external rigors of surviving within an ecosystem are equally challenging. But dreams never come easy. Mangesh Yadav, RCB’s latest recruit, had to go through it all to get into the hustle.

Speaking on RCB Bold Diaries, Mangesh’s childhood coach revealed how Mangesh’s journey began in the club circuit and how he went from sending the young seamer home to getting him back into the grind as well. The story of Mangesh feels like a dream.

Phool Chand Sharma said, “I don’t care if someone has money or not. If the player is good, come, eat, stay, practice well. But I have a bad habit that despite the facilities I provide, if someone is not practicing well, then I would send him back. And that incident happened with Mangesh as well. So one day I got irritated and asked him to pack his bags and leave.”

Narrating what happened with Mangesh behind the scenes and how he came back, the left-arm seamer said, “I had started considering cricket very easy. I could bowl and everything was good. I started getting very lazy. After I came back, I called sir, I apologized and I promised that this will never happen again. After that I realized the importance of what I was missing and what I had available and then I also looked at my family and realized that how hard they are working. So somewhere it hit me.”

His father chimed in on how occasional calls would make his heart sink, adding, “There were calls where they said that Mangesh was selected but when he arrived at the venue, he was told that his name was announced by mistake. In those moments I would feel helpless and felt I made a mistake by putting him in this line.”

Phool Chand Sharma then underlined the incredible journey that he undertook, stating, “I started making him play local tournaments. I made him play in Delhi DDCA League. Against ONGC he bowled well. I even got him a trial from UP. He went all the way to the U19 camp in UP. But he could not play. Then after that he did very well in MP Premier League. He became the best player of the tournament. He played Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.”