No! I cannot do it anymore. Have you said this to yourself and later regretted it? If you have, then you must read about my journey. It had been 6 months since my school was shut down because of COVID. One night, I told my father, I wanted to make a career as a cricketer. The next day, he went to the best academy in Nagpur and got me registered. On the first day, my coach did not allow me to touch the bat. I thought that maybe that is how everyone starts their training. The second day, no bat again. This continued on for a week, and my enthusiasm slowly started dying down. I started going to the ground late and stopped doing my warm ups properly. I complained to my father, “The academy is a scam.” After two weeks, I finally got the bat. Now when I think of it, I realise that my coach wanted players who could stay committed to the game no matter what.

 

Sometimes, life is just stuck at one level and that is when most of us quit, not realising how close they were to success. My wrists were weak and I did not have the power to defend the ball. After three months, my defence became perfect and had never been this patient in my life. With batting settled, the time came to start bowling. The coach took the choice to train me as a leg-spinner. I failed miserably. There were wides galore. But I continued to practice day and night. Six months passed by and I was still in the basic group and I started feeling that I had wasted a lot of my precious morning time and learnt very little cricket.

 

Then suddenly one morning everything changed. In one of the senior most batches, a bowler ended up injured and a substitute was needed. My coach called me and asked, “Match khelega?” And with a mixed feeling inside, of excitement as well as fear, I said, “Haan Sir, khelunga”. That was my first official match and I took 5 wickets that day and became the Man of The Match. The senior coach invited me to join his team and since that day, there has been no looking back. I learnt that opportunities always came to me, as long as I remained sincere in my practice. Not only in sport but in every field. You do not need only talent to become successful. You need punctuality, consistency and the spirit to outlast everyone else. If you are sincere in your passion then no one can stop you from becoming the best in the world. I know that I am a sum of the hard work of many people. This makes me humble and motivates me to achieve more to make all those people proud. By Aarav Bhartia, Chinmaya Intl Residential School,Coimbatore