As told to Abhishek Ghosh of DNA
November 22, 2007
Since I was born and brought up in Mumbai and was keenly involved in sports while growing up. I was a natural athlete and, ironically, except cricket - because it was thought of as a guy sport - participated in all other disciplines. You could have called me ‘jack of all trades’ as I was actively involved in badminton, gymnastics and squash.
Being an athlete, curiosity about other sportspersons was obvious. However, during my growing-up years, sports was strictly restricted to cricket, unlike to some extent as it is today.
Back then Imran Khan was my favourite and so was Ravi Shastri. I had posters of Imran Khan all over my room.
Now after all these years, after having worked with cricketers and ex-cricketers in close proximity, I have come to understand the sport and the participants better.
The awareness has increased and the nuances of the game are clearer to me. Would asy it has been a learning process and i have grown with it at every step.
I follow the Indian cricket team keenly and of the current lot, I find Dhoni very refreshing. He is a very basic person, by basic I mean he’s got no pretensions or airs about him. He brings about a liveliness and camaraderie among the players which was missing earlier in the team. Making him the one-day captain was a wise move.
Due to my busy schedule I am not able to play all sports as I would’ve liked to but I still find time for swimming and badminton. Apart from this, I also run and do a lot of cardiovascular exercises. Though not a conventional sport, of late I have been kickboxing as well which is a great stress reliever.
One grudge I have towards the city is that there’s hardly any space for kids to play outdoors. Despite that, if you go to Azad Maidan or Oval Maidan, you can see small children playing multiple matches.
It shows their spirit and love for the game.that despite such acute shortage of space they are willing to adapt to the situation by compromising on space.
Sport after all at an early age helps build character and team spirit which helps in the future.
However, I feel the avenues to explore and participate has widened since my growing-up years, a sign that bodes well for the future.
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