Sanju Samson
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Career
As in 2021 May
Narayanan S, May 5, 2021: The Times of India
Some 15 years ago, on a chilly Delhi evening, Viswanath Samson took his 11-year-old son to Feroz Shah Kotla stadium. On the notice board outside, there was the list of children picked for the Delhi U-13 camp from the trials held earlier. Viswanath was confident that his son would make it as he had caught everyone's attention with his performance during the trials. But the father and son were in for a rude shock. The boy's name was missing from the roster while some others who seemingly fared poorly had managed to get in. Viswanath consoled his son over a pizza while returning home. Back home, an incensed Viswanath told his wife to “pack up.” The family returned to their ancestral house in coastal Vizhinjam in Thiruvananthapuram within weeks as Viswanath took voluntary retirement from Delhi Police.
Cut to 2013. Viswanath was back at Feroz Shah Kotla. This time on a posh seat in the gallery as Rajasthan Royals played Mumbai Indians in the final of the Champions League T20. The whole stadium was cheering for an 18-year-old boy who in the middle was hitting the Mumbai bowlers to all parts of the ground. The name that did not feature on the Kotla notice board all those years ago was on the lips of everyone in the stadium and millions watching on TV - Sanju Samson had arrived on the scene. After a debut IPL season, in which he won the Best Young Player award, the Champions League campaign reinforced his credentials as a star for the future.
Sanju, a wicketkeeper-batsman, has since gone on to become one of the faces of modern-day Indian cricket, the pride of Kerala - only the third international cricketer from the state after Tinu Yohannan and S Sreesanth - and a seasoned IPL campaigner. At 26, he has already broken plenty of records and seen many ups and downs in his career. Last week, he became the first player to hit a century on a captaincy debut when he hit a sumptuous 119 for Rajasthan Royals against Punjab Kings, reigniting debates as to how he has represented India in only seven T20I games so far after making his debut in 2015. While that goes on, it's worth looking at how Sanju overcame the pain of being overlooked at a young age and became the cricketer that he is now. A centre forward for Delhi Police, Viswanath realized very early that it was cricket, not football that his two sons, Sanju and his elder brother Saly, should play. “As a footballer myself, I knew in India football is not the sport that you should ask your children to take up, whereas there is a lot of value in being a cricketer in India. So I bought cricket kits for my sons when they were seven or eight and made them play with leather balls,” Viswanath tells TOI.
Viswanath, his wife Lijy and the two sons were staying at a police residential colony in GTB Nagar in north Delhi. The kids were studying at Rosary Senior Secondary School, one of the top CBSE schools in Delhi. Apart from the tennis ball matches among kids in the neighbourhood, Viswanath would often take Sanju and Saly to the police training ground to match them up against the cricketers there. “Sanju faced 25-year-old bowlers of the police team when he was just eight and he would have no troubles against them even when they bowled from just 15 yards,” says Viswanath.
Viswanath, however, knew that for his sons to make it big in Delhi's highly politicised cricket environment, they could ill afford any wrong turn. “In one of the school matches,” Viswanath recalls, “Sanju was out stumped off the first ball. I told him 'we are anyway 'Madrasis' and they are looking for the first opportunity to throw you out. Remember that while you're playing'.”
Just weeks after the disappointment of his sons missing selection at that camp in Feroz Shah Kotla, Vishwanath with his family boarded the Kerala Express from New Delhi. Upon their arrival in Thiruvananthapuram, Viswanath went straight to the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) office to enquire about the prospects of his sons in the state. A selection trial to the district U-15 team had just been completed. Viswanath requested the officials to have a look at his boys. But the officials wouldn’t budge. After that, Sudhir Ali, a statistician with the association, took Viswanath to the Sports Authority of India (SAI) training centre at the Medical College ground where coach Biju George took the brothers under his wings.
“Fearlessness,” Biju says, “was Sanju's quality. He was a totally dedicated boy. He did not talk too much but was focused on his cricket. Come, practice and go back, no fuss.”
Sanju and his brother joined St Joseph's School in Thiruvananthapuram and travelled nearly 25 km from their home to the town’s medical college grounds for practice daily. “I knew Sanju was more talented than me and he could play for India one day. Till the age of 23, we both used to sleep in the same room but we never used to discuss the game deeply. If he ever needed help, he would come and ask and I would try to do whatever I could,” says Saly who played for Kerala at the junior levels before settling into a job with the AG's office.
“When Sanju was 12, he played a knock which, I still believe, is his best. It was a rainy day and the wicket was muddy at the Medical College ground. Sanju single-handedly won a school match for his team that day hitting bowlers to all corners and I knew this boy was destined for great things,” remembers Biju, who had been the fielding coach of the Indian women's team.
Sanju soon got into the Kerala U-13 team and captained them. He scored a century on his debut and finished a south zone U-13 tournament with four tons from five games. When he was 14, he was sent along with a Kerala senior team on an exposure trip to Australia. Aged 16, he went to South Africa. “We played against a province team led by former South Africa spinner Paul Adams. Sanju hit a six out of the stadium and into the streets. More than that, when we played a few T20s, he calmly finished off those games,” says Raiphi Vincent Gomez, the senior in the Kerala team who Sanju considers his mentor.
Sanju made his Ranji debut in the 2011-12 season and went on to become the youngest captain in the state's history. He was 20 when he took charge of the side for the 2015-16 season. But it was the IPL that catapulted the soft-spoken boy to fame that crossed international boundaries.
Though he was part of the Knight Riders squad in 2012, Sanju was released without being given a single game. In 2013, S Sreesanth arranged a trial for Sanju with Rajasthan Royals in which he impressed Rahul Dravid, who was the coach-cum-captain of the side. It was a passing-of-baton moment too in a way. As Sreesanth got embroiled in the spot-fixing saga, a new champion emerged for Kerala cricket. Apart from the two seasons in 2016 and 2017 in which he played for Delhi Daredevils, Sanju has been with the Royals ever since. His 2013 contract worth Rs 10 lakh swelled to Rs 8 crore when he was bought back by the Royals in 2018.
Sanju, though, doesn't get carried away by the fame and the riches that IPL brings. “However much success or fame we get, we should not change the way we look at people. Because people are special and I am mindful of that,” he had told TOI in an earlier interaction.
In 2018, Sanju married his longtime girlfriend Charulatha Remesh, who was his junior at Mar Ivanios College. “My life has become more peaceful and fulfilling after I married Charu. It has had a positive influence on my performance on the field,” Sanju once said.
There are some forgettable episodes too. In 2016, Sanju faced disciplinary proceedings against him by the KCA after he went out of the match venue during a Ranji match without informing the team management. In 2018, he was one of the eight players to be fined by the state association for dissent against captain Sachin Baby.
“It's his quiet nature,” says Viswanath, “that has landed Sanju in trouble. He is not a talkative person and that created some misgivings about him. There have been some misunderstandings but all that is in the past.”
Once a lean lad who relied on timing rather than brute force, Sanju has now built up the muscles to master range hitting, a necessary trait for batsmen of this age. And over the years, he has learnt the art of being candid and cheeky in front of the mic and on social media. His early initiation into the limelight makes it seem as if Sanju has been there forever. but he is still young and his best may be yet to come. One thing is for sure, he has already inspired many youngsters in Kerala to take up the willow.
