5 star cricketers and their first coaches ft. KL Rahul
The first coach plays a big role in the life of any sportsperson. Most of the successful athletes start learning the sport at a very young age, and it is the coach's duty to recognize the talent and take it to a whole new level.
The same goes for coaches in cricket. Several star cricketers credit their first coaches for their success on the field. Cadbury Dairy Milk recently launched a #ThankYouFirstCoach campaign to acknowledge the underappreciated heroes, who nurtured the superstars of the modern era.
In this listicle, we will look at the first coaches of five of the most popular cricketers in India.
#1 KL Rahul's first coach - Samuel Jayaraj
Lucknow Super Giants skipper KL Rahul is the highest-paid Indian cricketer in IPL 2024 with a salary of ₹17 crore. He has earned this massive contract thanks to his consistent batting performances in the league.
Rahul hails from a small city of Karnataka named Mangalore. In an interview with Sporstar, his first coach Samuel Jayaraj mentioned that Rahul first came to him when he almost 11 years old, and he would often come to practice at 2.30pm, which was one hour before the session started at 3.30pm.
Their team did not have proper batters, which is why coach Jayaraj would ask Rahul to bat for four balls and then take a single so that he gets to face maximum deliveries, thereby helping his team. Rahul is using that skill to this day even at the highest level of cricket.
#2 Suryakumar Yadav's first coach - Ashok Aswalkar
Mumbai Indians star Suryakumar Yadav has made a name for himself with his 360-degree hitting skills on the ground. No active batter can match the variety of shots that Yadav has in his arsenal. Just three years after his T20I debut, Yadav has been ruling the ICC T20I Rankings for batters.
His childhood coach Ashok Aswalkar groomed Yadav during his early days as a cricketer in Chembur. Interestingly, Aswalkar prefers watching the games on his TV screen instead of visiting the stadium for a live match. He often messages Yadav whenever he makes mistakes on the field.
Also, after IPL 2020, when Yadav was frustrated over missing out on a place in the Indian squad, his childhood coach Aswalkar kept him calm and motivated him to work harder.
You can know more about the journey here:
#3 Amit Mishra's first coach - Sanjay Bhardwaj
Amit Mishra has been one of the most successful bowlers in IPL history. The Lucknow Super Giants star has been a match-winner with the ball, scalping 173 wickets in 161 IPL games. He has done a phenomenal job for the Indian team as well.
Mishra's childhood coach Sanjay Bhardwaj runs an academy in Bharatnagar. Under his guidance, the likes of Gautam Gambhir, Nitish Rana, Joginder Sharma, and Unmukt Chand became top cricketers of the country.
In an interview with Firstpost in 2017, Bhardwaj disclosed that he never chased personal assignments. He is eligible to be an NIS coach and a BCCI level three coach but instead of choosing to join a state team or a franchise, he lets go of personal financial gains for the growth of his pupils. In Bhardwaj's view, if a player trained by him makes crores in IPL, it's a great achievement for him.
#4 Akash Madhwal's childhood coach - Avtar Singh
Akash Madhwal was one of the finds of the tournament in IPL 2023. The young fast bowler shouldered the responsibility of Mumbai Indians' bowling attack in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah and played a major role in the team's journey to Qualifier 2.
Madhwal continues to be an integral part of MI in IPL 2024, and the credit for his success goes to his childhood coach Avtar Singh. While Madhwal plays for Mumbai, he honed his cricketing skills under Avtar in Uttarakhand, who was also Rishabh Pant's coach at one point of time. Like Pant, it should not be a surprise if another disciple of Avtar Singh, Akash, makes India proud in the coming days.
#5 Krishnappa Gowtham's first coach - Irfan Sait
Lucknow Super Giants all-rounder Krishnappa Gowtham was born in Bengaluru. The spin-bowling all-rounder has won multiple IPL trophies and even represented India in ODI cricket. He trained under experienced coach Irfan Sait, who not only has the experience of training players in India but also in foreign nations.
According to his official work profile on LinkedIn, Sait has decades of coaching experience in India, Australia and England. Gowtham's childhood coach now trains upcoming talents of the USA. He has the ceritificates of Level 1 coach from KSCA, Level II coach from CA and Level III coach from ECB.
Hence, the journey of the above five cricketers shows the importance of the first coach in a player’s life. Irrespective of who the player is, he or she never forgets to say #ThankYouFirstCoach.