The day after India defeated Ireland in the Under-19 World Cup on January 19, the phone of former Indian junior cricketer, Kamal Passi starting buzzing with loads of messages and missed calls from people asking about his whereabouts.
When he returned to his club in the evening, his fellow mates started congratulating him and were amazed by the fact that he is an U-19 World Cup winner. Confused by all this, Passi asked one of his teammates what’s all this about.
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“He explained to me that they had showed the highlights of my 6/23 against Zimbabwe during the Ireland match, and commentator Alan Wilkins had asked about my whereabouts, what I am doing, and why I have not played enough first-class cricket,” said Passi.
“When I went through all those messages that night, most of them were from journalists asking for interviews. Few were from my former Punjab and Services teammates. Everyone was asking me only one question, ‘why didn’t you play enough cricket? Why did your career never take off?” he added with a laugh.
“It has been almost 10 years since we won the U-19 World Cup, and I still don’t know where it went wrong. I didn’t have the answer, so I decided not to reply to any of them.”
“After winning the title, I told Harmeet (Singh), who was my roommate, that I am having this terrible feeling that winning the U-19 World Cup is going to be the high point of my career. Unfortunately, whatever I told Harmeet that night turned out to be the reality.”
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“To answer all those questions about why my cricket never took off, it is because of my association. I have received step-motherly treatment, and I am still trying to figure out the reason. “To Mr Alan Wilkins, sir, I am still an active cricketer. I am still looking to cement my place in the Punjab senior team. I am 29, I still have a few years of cricket left in me, and I am an optimistic person.” he said.
