Four years ago Bharat Singh got loan of Rs 10,000 from his local loan provider so that his son could enrol in Jaipur’s premier cricket academy. On Saturday, his son Nathu Singh, a firebrand pacer from Rajasthan who clocks 140kmph repeatedly, was courted by RCB and Delhi Daredevils in the IPL auctions where 351 cricketers went under a rook with eight franchisees offering roughly a total of Rs 138 crores for them.
At the end of cricketer bid Nathu Singh were grabbed by Mumbai Indians who paid Rs 3.2 crore for the 20-year-old to instantly script big story into the ninth edition of the lucrative T20 league.
Bharat Singh, is an unskilled labour employed in a set-up that produces electrical wires just outside Jaipur. When he is not working with the cutting machine, he ferries rolls of the finished product in the city for a Rs 8,000 each month. Till Saturday the family had seen only a sum of Rs 12,000 and now here is Rs 3.2 crores that Mumbai Indians is paying for his son.
Ranji Trophy debut in October last Nathu made everyone sit up and notice him for his seven-wicket haul in second innings against Delhi, and found a voice of support as Gautam Gambhir, he was one of skipper who was the victims of the raw pace. Gambhir’s endorsement may be helped Nathu to earn a spot in the President’s XI squad against South Africa. It was the indication that he was noticed. He can repeatedly bowl at over 140 kmph. A time at the MRF Academy aided him to improve his skill to walk on the way of bigger things.
Nathu said that, “My father taken a loan of Rs 10,000 from local lender on two per cent monthly interest to pay my yearly academy fees”. That was not the only problem; he always had issue of cricket kit so he started playing in tennis ball cricket leagues to earn for his cricket kit…