How Sanju Samson shelved his childhood dream to pursue cricket

Sanju Samson is a popular name in Indian cricket from last few years. The wicket-keeper is known as one of most promising youngsters and has kept knocking the selectors’ door ever since Mahendra Singh Dhoni has retired. The Kerala lad came into the picture when he joined Rajasthan Royals in 2013 and he along with Rahul Dravid, formed a formidable opening pair for Rajasthan Royals.

Now, Samson has revealed an interesting fact, he wanted to become a police officer instead of a cricketer during his teenage years. His dream was inspired by the fact that his father, Viswanath was a former police constable. However, Samson continued playing cricket as he had the talent in the sport and now the 25-year-old is just one step away from playing for the national team.

“I wanted to be an [Indian Police Service] officer, and I was very passionate about that at that point of time,” Samson told The National. “Then I realised I had been given a great talent in cricket and that I should give my maximum effort and time towards cricket until I stop playing,” he added.

Sanju Samson’s love for FC Barcelona

The Rajasthan Royal’s star batsman got a lot of attention when he was playing for Indian Under-19 team in 2014 World Cup as playing an entire IPL season with Rahul Dravid helped him immensely. The team lost in the quarter-final, but Samson earned a lot of praise for his maturity. The players from the under 19 team used to wear yellow Nike rucksacks but the wicket-keeper was big-time Barcelona fan and used to mooch around with a Barcelona bag on his back.

” I was a very big fan of them [FC Barcelona] at that point in time and used to watch all of their games. I have lost that now, and don’t follow football so much. There are definitely better footballers than me in the Rajasthan Royals team,” Samson said

The stumper debuted for India in 2015 but was never able to cement his place in the national side. Though, he is one of the only 3 players from the 2014 U19 contingent to play from India. Delhi Capitals’ Shreyas Iyer and Kolkata Knight Riders’ Kuldeep Yadav are the other two players.