13 Cricketing stories of rags to riches in Indian cricket

Globally, the game of cricket has undergone a sea of change in terms of formats, techniques and rules, over the years. Test cricket has paved way for shorter and exciting formats of One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and Twenty20 cricket, jerseys have changed hues from white to bright colours, boundaries have become shorter and cricketing shots have been rewritten in the rule book. Indian cricket has also revamped itself, keeping tune with the proceedings worldwide.

One of the major changes that have occurred in the game in India is that gone are the days when only the aristocrats and royalties would get to don the pristine, white jerseys and walk out onto the lush green cricket fields when cricket was labelled as a game for the Maharajas and not the ordinary masses. Today, cricket is a game for one and for all. If we take a look at the Indian cricketing circle, we will encounter numerous inspirational stories of players who have traversed their way from rags to riches.

1. Umesh Yadav

As the son of a coal miner, Indian pacer, Umesh Yadav had to witness the worst of adversities before making it big. His father was employed as a coal mine worker from Deoria district in Uttar Pradesh and Yadav spent his childhood in Valli, a village of miners and their families. Owing to their constrained income, he was only able to participate in tennis-ball tournaments while growing up, as he could not afford to practice with the standard cricket ball.

Moreover, Yadav had absolutely no plans to become a cricketer. He dreamt of working in the army or the police force, but fate had different plans for him. At 20 years of age, Yadav was persuaded by a friend to try out his hand in leather-ball cricket and from there on, there was no looking back for him! At 22 he was playing for India. At 23, he had been bought for $750,000 in the 2011 Indian Premier League (IPL) auction and since then, he’s become one of the sturdiest pillars in the Indian pace department.