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A cakewalk for Vijay Kumar

A. Joseph Antony

— Photo: PTI

A PAT FROM THE COACH: Syed Abid Ali has been a good influence on P. Vijay Kumar.

HYDERABAD: After what he’s been through, cricket’s a cakewalk for Paidikalva Vijay Kumar. With a Duleep and two Ranji seasons behind him, the 6’ 2” speedster has never sought a physio. Rarely will you see him taking shelter under a hat or cap either. And therein lies a tale.

Poverty pitchforked this ninth class school drop out from Paidikalva village of Vallur mandal in Andhra Pradesh’s Kadapa district to drudgery for a daily wage of Rs. 40. The scorching soil of groundnut fields shaped his coarse hands, if not hard manual labour ranging from loading trucks to pitching tents or wielding every farm implement from the sickle to the axe.

Penury continues

In search of greener pastures, his penury continued in Kadapa town where his lot lay in cleaning lorries and buses, abuses and beatings being commonplace. Will this misery end, he’d wonder, when jacking up chassis of 15-tonne vehicles, to repair their punctured tyres. Hit by a running bus and hospitalised for over two months, his cup of woe was complete.

Recovering in his village, the dread of disability daunted him. Back to school, but not to thump books, he worked as a cook for the mid-day meal scheme. Cricket provided him release but censure from his parents. When he sneaked out with his brothers Sagar and Babu to indulge his passion, the family was robbed of three members’ earnings. His pace generated awe, the barefoot sibling trio’s fame preceding their arrival for taluk-level tourneys.

Tractor rides to venues saved him bus fare. The tenner he tapped his vegetable vendor mother Saraswathi’s tenderness for, paid for a plate each of idlis and ragi sangati (finger millet dumplings), the day’s sustenance. Friends footed his meal bills, when even his father agricultural labourer David P. couldn’t scrape up the money.

Catching the eye

Vijay’s first spell with a cricket ball, on a matting wicket at the Dargah ground, Kamalapuram, saw the cherry shoot and catch the eye of Cuddapah Cricket Association Secretary Nageswar Raju, who along with Andhra Cricket Association (ACA) selector M.S. Kumar and Secretary V. Chamundeswarnath, mentored the paceman. Under the benevolent but watchful eyes of former Test speedster Syed Abid Ali, his stock grew.

Hauls of 22 wickets in four inter-district under 22 matches and 27 in the Venkatagiri Cup, where he actually broke two stumps, were just the start to a swift and steady rise. After a 2006 Ranji debut against Baroda, the big guns falling prey to him included Mohammad Kaif, Robin Uthappa, Hemang Badani, Piyush Chawla and Manoj Tiwari.

Memorable experience

His most memorable experience came against Bengal at the Eden Gardens, prompted by Andhra skipper M.S.K. Prasad. When Christmas Eve went barren, the former Indian Test wicket-keeper urged him to recall his harrowing past and cling to cricket like the proverbial last straw. Five wickets he felled the following day, with an encore in the second innings!

Memories of his mother weeping under her day-long vegetable basket burden, Vijay will never forget. His call-up for the Deccan Chargers (Hyderabad) in the Indian Premier League is certainly a windfall. Ask him for achievements outside cricket and his reply comes straight from the rural hinterland. “I’ve only done chillar panilu (odd jobs),” he says with disarming rustic simplicity.

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