IPL: Fazilka’s ‘Narine Jalalabadiya’ ready to soar

Praful Chander Nagpal

Fazilka, February 15

Two days after Ramesh Kumar, aka ‘Narine Jalalabadiya’, was picked up by the IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders, he’s excited. “I’m on my way to Mumbai in an aeroplane,” says the 23-year-old, who is yet to play any recognised representative cricket and was bought by KKR on the basis of online videos and recommendations from Punjab veteran Gurkeerat Mann.

After Shubman Gill, Ramesh has made the sleepy border town of Jalalabad in Fazilka district proud as he became the second player from the region to be bought in the IPL mega auction.

Ramesh’s story is quite amazing. Belonging to the very poor Sansi community of Rajasthan, he started playing the game at age 16, facing opposition from his father who thought “cricket is a game of affluent people”.

His father Manga Ram, who cannot read or write, is a cobbler and shoe-polisher in Jalalabad, and mother Narmo Devi is an itinerant vendor who sells bangles in different villages, ground around on foot. The two have been working hard to make both ends meet and raise their three sons.

During the IPL auction, Ramesh was listed as a batter and only a handful of people knew about who he was — those in the KKR camp. He’s a left-arm spinner and can turn the ball both ways. “I can bowl six different deliveries with the same action in an over,” says Ramesh. This ability became his ticket to the IPL, the richest cricket league in the world.

He started aping West Indies spinner Sunil Narine after watching him on TV, but he played with the soft ball in tennis-ball cricket tournaments in Punjab and then across India.

To leather

His Instagram handle has the name ‘Narine’ because after someone posted a video of him bowling online with the caption ‘Narine Jalalabadiya’, the name stuck. Ramesh says that a video of his bowling action was sent by a friend to Mann. Mann liked what he saw and shared it with Abhishek Nayar, the KKR assistant coach.

Last year Mann called Ramesh to Punjab’s Ranji Trophy nets and found that the tennis-ball specialist could bowl well with the leather ball, too.

“Mann paaji and Nayar sir were instrumental in taking me to this level,” says Ramesh.

Ramesh bagged 11 wickets in three matches in the JP Atray Tournament, and 12 wickets in four matches for Kapurthala in the Katoch Shield.

Nayar then called Ramesh to the KKR trials last month, and Mann helped him put his name up for the IPL auction with a base price of Rs 20 lakh, the lowest category. His name came up in the final stage of the auction on Sunday, and he was snapped up by KKR.

‘500 a day’

He recalls the time he travelled for tennis-ball tournaments, making Rs 500-1000 a day. “You must have seen my videos (on YouTube) paaji. I am basically a tennis-ball player. Since I could turn the ball away and turn back in, people advised me to play with a leather ball. They would say ‘you might make it big’,” he says. “But I didn’t have the support that I needed to pursue the game professionally. I used to play the odd leather-ball game but mainly it was all tennis-ball cricket.”

“I used to bowl with a Cosco ball (used in tennis), which is very light. The leather ball is much heavier and it is harder to make it turn but I am slowly getting better. I am sure the IPL stint will help my game in a big way,” he adds.

“It started with me playing all across Punjab. When I performed I got calls from other states too. Sometimes I made 500 rupees in a day, sometimes it was 1,000. It was just about enough to run the house and manage my travel expenses,” he says. Ramesh wants his parents to stop working now. “They have finally agreed to not work anymore. I never wanted them to do this work in the first place but it had to be done out of necessity,” Ramesh says.

Tough life

“I migrated from neighbouring Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan in search of livelihood around three decades ago,” says Manga Ram, Ramesh’s father. “I never knew luck would shine on me in such a way that my eldest son would be picked up for the IPL and bring fame to my family, which struggled to earn two square meals.”

Manga Ram used to advise his son not to select cricket as his career. “I thought it was a game of affluent people,” he says. “But now he can make a career in cricket and has proved me wrong.” — With agency inputs