Rohit Sharma’s boyhood cricket coach says he will be the “richest person in the world” if the India captain lifts the World Cup — despite never charging for a training session. Dinesh Lad, a former railway worker and cricketer, has helped mould dozens of players during a 30-year coaching career, including Rohit and India team-mate Shardul Thakur.
Lad has done this mainly while operating as the coach at the Swami Vivekanand International School in Borivali, a northwestern suburb of Mumbai far removed from the city’s famous cricket nurseries such as the Oval Maidan or Shivaji Park. But whether they have gone on to international honours or not, all of his charges have had one thing in common.
“I never took money from anybody (for cricket). I never took money from any parent,” Lad told AFP during an interview at the school on Sunday.
Rohit, 36, is set to lead India in a World Cup semi-final against New Zealand at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium on Wednesday, with Lad saying: “I’m the happiest person in the world.
“And if I saw the (World Cup) trophy in his hands, then I must be the richest person in the world.”
But it was his bowling that captured Lad’s attention when he first saw the 12-year-old playing against his school team during a summer camp in May 1999.
“They were just 10-over games. They (Rohit’s side) scored about 67 in 10 overs and we chased that down in seven or eight overs.
“But in that time I saw Rohit’s off-spin — not batting — the way he bowled…in just two overs he only conceded five or six runs and took one wicket.”
Immediately impressed, Lad wanted to bring Rohit, then living with his uncle, into the school team and arranged a meeting with the director (headmaster).
“His uncle asked me about the fees, which were 275 rupees ($3.30) per month. Immediately, he said ‘we cannot afford that’.
“So I went to the director and said to him ‘Sir the boy is very poor but he’s very talented’, please give him a freeship (the equivalent of a scholarship). And then Rohit came to this school.
Rohit, averaging nearly 56 at the World Cup, is the only man to have scored three double-centuries in one-day internationals.
Source: eNCA
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