CHENNAI: They grew up with the dream of representing India. But in a cricketing powerhouse bursting at the seams, that can sometimes feel like threading the eye of a needle.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Even so, that hasn’t stopped the likes of Monak Patel, Saurabh Netravalkar, Jaspreet Singh and more to be part of the T20 World Cup. Across the 20 teams, 40 players with Indian roots will take the field in different colours, just not in the India ‘blue’. Canada tops the chart with 11 Indian diaspora players, followed by the US with nine. Oman and the UAE have seven each.
Leading the US is 32-year-old wicketkeeper-batter Monank, who once played age-group cricket for Gujarat U-19s. Monank, who followed his family to the USA after not getting an opportunity in India, said he is grateful for a second chance in international cricket.“It’s a dream come true for many players in our team. The majority of them started their careers in India, so it’s very special. It feels different to be playing in India for the USA, but we’ve been representing them for a long time now. The decision to play for the USA was actually a ‘meantto-be’ situation for me,” Monank, who has been a vital cog in the growth of US cricket since his debut in 2019, told TOI.
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As Italy step on to the World Cup stage for the first time, fast bowler Jaspreet will look to carve out his own journey. Born in Phagwara, he once dreamed of playing on these very international grounds.“I came to Italy when I was very young, and today I truly feel it is my home. Every cricketer grows up dreaming of playing in a World Cup, and being here now is hard to put in words. It’s special that it is being played in India, where everything began for me. As a child, I dreamed of playing on the same international grounds where great players compete. After so many sacrifices and so much hard work, I can only be grateful, and I want to enjoy every single moment of this experience,” said Jaspreet, who once even drove an Uber in the UK to make a living.Many of them are amateur cricketers. Take the case of Netravalkar, who was quite impressive for the USA in the last T20 World Cup. The left-arm pacer is a software professional who often took leave to pursue his cricket dreams. He dismissed two of his heroes, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, in the last World Cup. During an interaction in New York after the match, he had said, “I’m just happy that I can pursue both my passions. The support that I get from my employers does help.”Off-spinner Aryan Dutt’s parents moved from India to the Netherlands before he was born. “I didn’t get the chance to return here after the 2023 World Cup. My family will be watching the game and, if time permits, I hope to go and see them too,” he said.Former Mumbai cricketer Sulakshan Kulkarni is currently Oman’s deputy coach. Having coached extensively in India’s domestic circuit, he chose to move to Oman. “This has been happening for years,” he says,“When players realise how difficult it is to break through in India, they start looking for opportunities elsewhere. Nowadays they are coming to that realisation much earlier.”
