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10 cricketers who defied struggles to reach the top

The neo-cricket era looks at cricketers through a different perspective. Cricketers have become celebrities who are seen as glamour kings, who bedeck fashion rags, date models and fix matches.Cricketers are often associated with money and are misconstrued to be avaricious. But among all the incredibly rich and impressively famous cricketers, there are stories of some inspiring and enthralling lives of men who ascended from the debris of lopsided urbanization and unfair disasters.These are stories that have a tinge of novelty, a trace of poetic justice, and a scintilla of cinematic episodes. The slides contain tales of Slumdog Millionaires, tsunami boys, hamlet heroes and a toilet cleaner.Here are 10 cricketers who have overcome struggles to reach the top:

#1 Umesh Yadav

Nagpur is an archaic region- a region where cars are still looked upon like space ships, where farmer suicides are daily affairs and where people dwell in room sized abodes. This town is India’s geographical centre. 

It is from this part of the world, arguably India’s fastest ever bowler hails. Hurling tennis bowls at express pace, Umesh Yadav spent his childhood playing no leather ball cricket. His father was a coal miner and the family lived in a settlement for coal miners. Life was tough. Breaking even was a luxury. 

Umesh Yadav could not pursue his education beyond class XII. Yadav’s father didn’t want his youngest son to end up as a coal miner, hence requested him to do something with his life. Umesh tried to join the army but was rebuffed. He then attempted to get into police service but missed it by a whisker. 

He had nothing else to do. All avenues in his life semed to have been closed. He would spend day in, day out bowling fast with the tennis ball.

A victory for his team or a man of the match award would earn him 8-10, 000 Indian rupees, which would be adequate for a month or two. Realizing that tennis ball cricket would not earn him much, he tried to take up leather ball cricket.  An attempt to get into his college cricket team became a failure since he played no club cricket.

So he joined the Vidarbha Gymkhana. He bowled with shoes sans spikes and got 3 for 37. Soon, words about a rookie, raw paced bowler started doing rounds around the Vidarbha Cricket Association. A cinematic, fairy tale ascend began, and Yadav whistled up the rungs. 

Within months of playing with a leather ball, Yadav made his first-class debut. He rose like a rocket off its launch pad.

In the Duleep Trophy that followed the fast bowler picked up a five-for which included the wickets of Dravid and Laxman. 

The seamer had an athletic body. He was burly and had a shoulder girdle- a rarity among Indian pacers. His express pace and lethal yorkers soon earned him a berth in the Indian line up. 

A son of a coal miner was soon bought by Delhi Daredevils for $30, 000 in 2008. He made his ODI debut in 2010 and test debut in 2011. Being the country’s fastest bowler Umesh Yadav would be one of India’s key weapons in its arsenal going into the world cup in Australia and New Zealand.

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