IPL: Rags to riches stories that will melt your heart
The Indian Premier League is the biggest T20 franchise in the world. Ever since its inception, it has been the biggest T20 tournament in the cricket fraternity – which is why it is also the richest league in the world.
The financial package involved is incredible. If a relatively obscure player somehow gets a place in any of the 8 franchises, the remuneration he will get is almost always at an unprecedented range.
As a result, there have been many players who have touched the riches from rags – and here are five such cases:
Yashasvi Jaiswal
The teenager had a base price of 20 lac in the IPL auction for this season. Almost everyone expected him to not only be bought by one of the teams but also breach the crore barrier.
In the end, that is exactly what happened as Jaiswal ended up being bought for 2.4 crores by Rajasthan Royals. The youngster set the Indian domestic scene on fire with his double hundred in a List A game in the Vijay Hazare Trophy and was sure to be one of the most coveted players at the auction.
To think that Jaiswal once sold paani puris to earn a living and had to sleep in a tent after coming to Mumbai shows how far he has been able to come due to his cricketing brilliance.
And now, he can own a flat in Mumbai.
Rinku Singh
Rinku Singh might not have been able to set the IPL on fire but he has been successful in keeping his place in the Kolkata Knight Riders squad for three seasons running.
The man from Aligarh came from a difficult background as he was almost set to become a sweeper after not being able to find his feet in the domestic circuit. His father delivered LPG cylinders for a living while two of his brothers worked as auto-rickshaw drivers.
However, everything changed for him once he was bought for 80 lac in the 2018 IPL auction by KKR and he has been with them ever since.
Thangarasu Natarajan
Another rags to riches story, Thangarasu Natarajan was bought for a mammoth sum of 3 crores in the 2017 IPL auction by Kings XI Punjab, becoming one of the most expensive uncapped buys of the auction.
Before that, he had been able to make a name for himself in the Tamil Nadu Premier League with his sleek left-hand pace bowling.
Natarajan’s father was a daily wage worker while his mother would help with earning a living by selling meat. Both of them had a difficult time to maintain the increasing living expenses of day-to-day life until Natarajan struck gold in the IPL auction.
Nathu Singh
Mumbai Indians caused somewhat of a storm when they signed Nathu Singh for an enormous 3.2 crore rupees in the 2016 IPL auction. Singh comes from a family accustomed to financial hardships.
His father was a labourer in a factory near Jaipur and found it hard to make ends meet with the minimum wages that he got. However, things started getting brighter when Nathu Singh announced himself on the domestic circuit with a brilliant Ranji Trophy debut with Rajasthan.
He then got a bumper offer from Mumbai Indians and while he hasn’t been able to make a name for himself in the IPL yet, he hasn’t had to look back financially ever since.
Mohammad Siraj
Mohammad Siraj’s story is an inspirational tale for all of us. The pacer’s father was an auto-rickshaw driver and also found it hard to make ends meet, let alone a quality life, with his earnings.
However, fate had something else in store for the family as Siraj made his breakthrough in the Ranji Trophy in 2015, picking up 41 wickets in his first 9 matches.
This resulted in the Royal Challengers Bangalore buying him for 2.6 crore rupees in the 2017 IPL auctions and later that year, he went on to debut for India against New Zealand in a T20I match.
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