Struggling to break into Delhi’s competitive cricket circuit, flamboyant India batter Sanju Samson on Saturday revealed how a sudden, life-changing decision was made by his father Viswanathan to shift the entire family to Kerala, which later turned out to be the turning point of his eventual cricketing career.
Samson had a breakthrough time by hitting three consecutive fifties to take India to T20 World Cup glory at home earlier this year and became Player of the Tournament. But Samson hasn’t been at his best of late – making five and zero in the series defeat to Ireland and posting just one in the abandoned T20I against England in Durham.
Samson, though, will be backed to find his rhythm when India take on England in the second T20I at Old Trafford on Saturday. “Back in school, I used to see friends wear the DDCA jacket and talk about playing for the state cricket team of Delhi. That motivated me. I wanted to represent Delhi too. I went for trials, attended state camps, and scored runs.
“Two or three times I made it to the camp but never got a breakthrough into the state team. The competition was tough. Then one day, the team list was announced after my trials had ended. My name was not there. We returned home in silence. As soon as we reached home, my father told my mother, ‘We will have to move to Kerala. We are shifting.’ My mother said, ‘The kids are only in 6th standard. Let them complete 10th.’
“My father said, ‘No, we have to go now. Pack your things. I am booking tickets in three days.’ He took that decision instantly. I remember, we all boarded the train. Then we reached Kerala and I started playing for Kerala. That is how my cricket journey for the Kerala State team began,” said Samson on JioStar’s show ‘Superstars’.
He also recalled how he began to have a love for cricket while growing up in the police colony in GTB Nagar. “Delhi has played a very big role in my life, to be very honest. My life started in Delhi. My father was in the Delhi Police football team. He used to go for practice in the morning and evening. From that time, I developed a love for sports.
“I felt that yes, I want to become a sportsman one day. I used to live in the police quarters. There, cricket used to be played everywhere. So automatically, cricket attracted me from childhood. I used to gather my friends and we would play in the middle of the road in the police colony, with quarters on both sides.
“We would put up stumps and play there. It started from proper gully cricket, with a tennis ball. We had our own rule. My father also saw that I was enjoying cricket. He never tried to push me into football. He used to take us to play football, and we still play it, but he thought that cricket has a good future. He told me, ‘I saw you batting and I felt that you have talent.’ So, he made me and my brother play cricket instead of football.”
He further shared a fond memory of seeing a rare practice session at the iconic Arun Jaitley Stadium (formerly Feroz Shah Kotla), arranged courtesy of his father being on police duty. “It is a very special memory. As kids, we used to go to academies and practice in schools. One day, my father said that he would take me to Feroz Shah Kotla for practice.
“So, we went to the nets for practice. We got ready in our full whites. We all went to Feroz Shah Kotla in a bus. My father had some duty there and he requested someone to let us practice for an hour.
“So, my brother, my father, and I practiced together in the nets for an hour. I don’t know, it must have been a big blessing. I don’t know how my father managed it, but nowadays they don’t allow such things. Maybe because my father was on duty, it happened.”
