Indian cricket had a list of players successfully straddling academics and their sport in the 1990s, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath and Rahul Dravid among them. But to have two on the circuit in the IPL generation and in the same franchise is unusual.
We know of Kolkata Knight Riders’ (KKR) Venkatesh Iyer, his MBA degree and the Deloitte job he gave up to stick to cricket. Iyer hasn’t had to repent the move, having recently played limited-overs cricket for India.
Taking inspiration from his KKR teammate is Pratham Singh, another cricketer in the Shah Rukh Khan-owned franchise who is excellent in academics—he recently cleared GMAT with high scores to qualify for MBA in UK—but is committed to keep his cricket dream alive.
Singh, a left-handed top-order stroke player who bowls off-spin has been a prolific white-ball run scorer for Railways. He was the fourth highest run-maker in the Mushtaq Ali T20 2018-19 with 438 runs at a strike rate of 136. That’s when Covid stuck. “He was called for IPL trials and was impressive hitting nine sixes in one such trial. But he didn’t find takers in the auctions that followed,” said father Sudhir Singh, who works as a civil engineer with the New Delhi Municipal Corporation.
With the pandemic leading to cancellation of domestic cricket, Singh focused his energies on GMAT, cleared it and nearly enrolled for an MBA course in UK. His plan was to study, while playing for some counties there. But Sudhir persuaded him to not give up on all his hard work on the Indian domestic circuit. Singh is also an engineer in electronics and communication and has got a seat at the Indian School of Business school in Hyderabad, but that career path will have to wait for his cricket. “The KKR opportunity this year has come like a god-send,” said Sudhir.
{{/usCountry}}With the pandemic leading to cancellation of domestic cricket, Singh focused his energies on GMAT, cleared it and nearly enrolled for an MBA course in UK. His plan was to study, while playing for some counties there. But Sudhir persuaded him to not give up on all his hard work on the Indian domestic circuit. Singh is also an engineer in electronics and communication and has got a seat at the Indian School of Business school in Hyderabad, but that career path will have to wait for his cricket. “The KKR opportunity this year has come like a god-send,” said Sudhir.
{{/usCountry}}Singh was earlier part of the Gujarat Lions franchise in IPL 2017, where the current KKR coach Brendon McCullum was a teammate. He also got to rub shoulders with the likes of Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and Dwayne Bravo but did not get a game. “I am confident the moment he gets a match, he will prove his worth,” said Zakaria Zuffri, Singh’s coach at Railways.
“He has waited long and I have seen him working very hard on his power-hitting game. He is a cricketer with a growth mindset and in the KKR set-up his power game would have gone up a notch higher.”