Tanmay Srivastava on 2008 U19 World Cup winning team: ‘We used to see everything as ‘We’… There was no ‘I or me’ culture’

Like this batch, we started our preparation for the 2008 under-19 World Cup nearly two years in advance. Piyush Chawla was my captain initially and then for a couple of series, I was asked to lead. And then came Virat Kohli, under whom we won the title eventually in Malaysia. The first time I saw Kohli was in a National Cricket Academy zonal game. He was playing for North Zone. In one of the games, he played brilliantly. There were others who scored too but Kohli was different.

He had amazing power then too and was of a dominating nature.

As we played more, I realised that his will power made him different from others. He had the drive to beat the best. And to hit the best bowlers. That made him special. I remember him saying in one game that there was no enjoyment in hitting mediocre bowlers, he wanted to hit the top ones.

Even in those days, our team was the best and later at least 8-9 cricketers went on to play for the Indian senior team. The final was a low-scoring game and I remember a South African player said something in the middle. I remember in those two years, we used to see everything as ‘We’, and think and perform as a collective. There was no ‘I or me’ culture.

The most memorable time during the under-19 days was to go and make a call back home after a game or going out for dinner, especially abroad. Those days, the daily allowance was very less, so we had decided that we will dine in groups so that everyone can eat properly and pay less.

During the England tour, Lalchand Rajput was our coach, so his friends used to bring food with them. We all used to wait for them. We used to walk for kilometres so that money could be saved. It wasn’t a social media or smartphone era, so everyone was in each other’s rooms.

We used to get a calling card then, which we used to buy for $10 from the general store, and scratch it. One will get a number from it and we have to put the number and the country code, for it to connect. After the call, it would tell you how much money was left. After we won the Under-19 World Cup, all of us were in the queue at a nearby booth to make calls back home.

Wherever we landed, one player was given the task to search for a nearby booth and inform others. The 2008 one was the best team and we still talk with each other sometimes. Some have become administrators, umpires, commentators, but everyone enjoyed the success and good times we had.

(Tanmay Srivastava was a member of the victorious Indian team at the 2008 U-19 World Cup. He spoke to Devendra Pandey.)

Having spent years covering Mumbai’s local "maidan" cricket circuit, Devendra Pandey brings a unique ground-level perspective to his reporting. ... Read More

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