It’s not that Pakistan lost to India B, it’s that Pakistan lost to India H1-B. That was the popular view when the United States stunned former world champions Pakistan with a nail-biting Super Over finish in a World T20 group match on Friday in Dallas. The historic win also featured six cricketers of Indian descent with temporary H1-B visas that allow companies to hire employees overseas, so the joke is likely to be a hit in immigrant communities.
Nearly all of them played a part in a historic day for American cricket, with ripples of joy that spread from Delhi to Mumbai to Anand in Gujarat to Chikkamagaluru in Karnataka. Their stories are many.
Super Over hero Saurabh Netravalkar packed his bags and moved from Mumbai to San Francisco to pursue higher education. Man of the match and batting hero Monank Patel (50 off 38 balls) left Anand in 2016 to start a restaurant in New Jersey after realising his cricketing career was stalled. Three-wicket hero Nostash Kendjige, born in Alabama but raised in the Nilgiris and Bangalore, returned to the US to work as a biotechnologist. Milind Kumar, who took the stunning catch in the Super Over, played for several domestic teams before quitting his job with ONGC and flying to Houston where he played league cricket. Nitish Kumar, who scored the tying four off the last ball, was born in Ontario, Canada but moved to the US during the turbulent times of the pandemic. Left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh, whose move has been likened to Bishan Singh Bedi, left India devastated after setbacks and rejection including a match-fixing scandal, though the commission eventually found him innocent. Jasdeep Singh spent most of his life shuttling between New Jersey and Chandigarh before settling in the US.
Their sweat and dreams paid off on a sparkling afternoon in Dallas and after midnight in India. But the Netravalkars in Malad were not getting any sleep. Saurabh’s father Naresh was nervous before and during the match, especially since his wife had flown to the US. “I was absolutely nervous. It was a hero or zero day for my son. I was confident but Pakistan are a good team,” he told The Indian Express.
But the left-arm seamer rose to the occasion and produced a masterful Super Over that looked as if he was coding a complex program in an Oracle office. Prior to that, he had bowled some brilliant runs, conceding 18 runs and taking two wickets.
Saurabh was on the verge of quitting cricket but once wrote on Facebook, “Even if you quit cricket, cricket will find a way back into your life.”
According to his father, when he left home, he didn’t even have a pair of bowling spikes. “He saw a few people playing cricket where he lived near his college. He started playing cricket to kill time. Look at his fate. As America is the hosting nation, they have a chance to play in this World Cup and Saurabh got a chance to represent the USA,” he said.
Saurabh is in the office from 9am to 9pm on weekdays. “The office has all the facilities so he uses the gym there, he sets up the nets and travels every weekend to play in different tournaments,” his father said. He attributes his son’s success to a clear plan: “He told his dad that if he didn’t get enough opportunities, he would move to the US to do a master’s degree.”
He did so, but another dream was waiting for him: a cricketing dream that he had buried.
But his teammate Monanku refused to give up cricket as his dying mother’s last wish was for him to become a cricketer. After representing Gujarat in age-group cricket, Monanku felt he had nothing to gain from cricket and flew to New Jersey in 2014 to start a new life. Two years later, he opened a Chinese restaurant, but it didn’t attract enough customers and he ended up selling it due to mounting debts.
Another shock was that his mother was diagnosed with cancer and passed away soon after, but Monanku continued playing cricket as per his mother’s wish.
Fortunately, then US coach J. Arunkumar recognised his talent and polished the brilliance of his talent to become a mainstay of the US batting.”It’s a big day for the US team and for US cricket. Of course, a win against Pakistan in the World Cup will open a lot of doors for us,” he said after the match.
Leading them all is Milind, a veteran with 46 first-class appearances under his belt, who has played in the IPL. He was a reserve player but made his mark on the game with an acrobatic catch, sprinting to trap Iftikhar Ahmed in the Super Over.
His father Suman, a retired banker who lives in Karol Bagh, Delhi, explained why Milind left the country: “The money was good and major league cricket was in the cards. It was tough to say goodbye to him, but it was pure passion for the game that led him to leave his native town.”
Nostash’s journey was unlike any other. He was born in Alabama. His father Pradeep, a coffee planter, author and board member of the Coffee Day Committee, was completing his master’s in agriculture. When he was two months old, the family moved back to a quaint coffee town in Karnataka. He developed an interest in the game and played league cricket in Bangalore. He then left cricket to start a new life in Virginia.
But Nostash knew he couldn’t give up on the habit of playing cricket. So he started playing in local leagues, attended trials, and used his claim to be an American citizen to his advantage. He then did 800 hours of community service over a year to qualify for the U.S. national team. Now he’s living out dreams he never thought would come true. And those dreams are thanks to the “H1-B” emblazoned on his visa sticker.
(With inputs from Devendra Pandey and Pratyush Raj)
