The prodigy has an enduring allure, more so if he is yet to sprout whiskers, and his voice has a pre-adolescent twang. This is a trait often linked to subcontinental cricket, especially in India and Pakistan.

An Imran Khan would stroll the streets in Pakistan and pick lads hurling a tape-ball at tremendous pace. And in India, there are these two forever projects linked to finding the next Kapil Dev and the next Sachin Tendulkar.

Subject of curiosity

In all these quests, the subject of curiosity is a young boy, yet to feel the splash of an aftershave on his chin. “Chotte”, or little one, might sound like body-shaming in these politically correct times, but it is also a term of endearment from the senior professional to the pre-pubescent youngster breaking into the big world of cricket.

Be it India or Pakistan, the search for the next big “chotte”, a striking oxymoron, is always on. Seen in this context, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, 14 years old, and on the cusp of turning 15, has ticked all the boxes.

Age entirely on his side, a cherubic face, stunning talent, and hell, he has already played First Class cricket for Bihar, Indian Premier League (IPL) fixtures for Rajasthan Royals, and is a vital cog within the India Under-19 outfit. The numbers he has stacked up are staggering.

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At a mere 14, he hammered 101 off 38 balls for Rajasthan Royals against Gujarat Titans in Jaipur during last year’s IPL. For those with a recency bias, there is the 175 he plundered against England in the Under-19 World Cup final at Harare on February 6.

He has done all this while still not being eligible for a driving licence or a voter ID, and obviously he will be barred at bars! At an age when boys are dealing with acne, exam-fever and the perplexity of adolescence, Suryavanshi is making headlines — and, unsurprisingly, the ‘next Sachin’ references have popped up.

The southpaw’s talent is for all to see and, already, whispers about blooding him into the senior Indian squad have begun. Still it is better to wait a bit for the boy to become a man, maybe sport a wisp of a moustache, gain some years and some certainty in his emotional arc.

The lines above may sound like the statutory warning in share market ventures, but some caution is essential while selectors allow him to organically flourish. It must be remembered that for even Tendulkar, there was a counter in Vinod Kambli. The latter made that oft-quoted comment about his buddy taking the elevator while he took the stairs, but when he did catch up with the former, he dazzled, albeit, all too briefly.

Tendulkar turned up first for India at 16 in a Test, and Kambli did that at 19 in an ODI. Briefly, the schoolmates found their tracks running parallel, and then the dynamic southpaw, who once toyed with the great Shane Warne at Sharjah, ran out of steam.

Form waned, a chink against short-pitched bowling undid his forays at the batting crease, and, more importantly, Kambli the person unravelled. His international career was over when he was just 28, ideally the prime stage in a batter’s life. Refusing to read the tea leaves, Kambli often moistened his throat with a potent liquid and soaked his soul within the stifling embrace of self-pity.

Flattering to deceive

A talent withered while Tendulkar watched aghast and, in his own way, tried to help. Readers of a certain vintage may still remember the effervescence that Kambli lent to a soft drink advertisement, which featured his other India mates too. Still, he remains a case of promising much and then flattering to deceive.

It need not be all gloom and doom, and yes, Suryavanshi needs to be celebrated in the immediacy of his runs and the hope he offers. To swing on the side of positivity, there is the Virat Kohli story. Again a star at the Under-19 level, Kohli’s transition to the India shade and to the Royal Challengers Bengaluru colours was not easy.

Speaking to him at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru, it was obvious that he was self-aware for someone still under 20. Yet during a candid interaction with select media personnel at a fancy hotel in the same city, he once opened up about how he presumed it would all come easy to him, indulged himself a bit, and then understood cricket at the international and even club level is tougher than his Under-19 skirmishes.

This was a man who held a mirror to himself and turned his career around. Suryavanshi has ideal role models in Tendulkar and Kohli. So too in other earlier Under-19 stars like Yuvraj Singh. But it is a minuscule club, as the graduation from teens to adulthood is never easy for most in real life. It is even tougher for young athletes torn between academics and sport, blinding limelight and honest sweat.

Throw in fame and excess money in the bank, and heads can sway, and the 5 a.m. alarm call can be ignored. The morning run is discarded, visits to the gym turn sporadic, and shots are played from a rusting muscle-memory. Just like Kambli, there are whispers about Prithvi Shaw now. Most would remember Unmukt Chand, Under-19 star primed to turn out for India. He also featured in a soft drink commercial with established stars. He even wrote a book, ‘The Sky is the Limit’. But he didn’t fly high.

Just as India celebrates its teenage prodigies, it also quickly tires of them once they fall by the wayside. Presciently, Tendulkar told the trophy-winning India Under-19 captain Ayush Mhatre: “Don’t lose focus and get distracted.” The legend was gently nudging the lad to chase his dreams of eventually playing for the India senior team.

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From the Under-19 level, cricketers still have to turn up for their local clubs, play for their State age-groups and try and break into the Ranji squad. At times patience wears thin and it is presumed that there is a magic bridge between Under-19 and the India colours, with the IPL lending a hand.

The cricketing fraternity will quickly pounce on attitude shifts, notes will be exchanged, and suddenly, the rising star becomes a wilting flower. Soon, it becomes a rage against the dying flame, and as more competitive talent emerges, the return to top-flight cricket becomes tough.

Support system essential

A support system is essential, at times the NCA, now the BCCI CoE, does that through its coaches and counselling sessions. A young and temperamental Harbhajan Singh almost contemplated shifting to Canada and driving trucks but he had a supportive captain in Sourav Ganguly, and he flourished.

Still, it all boils down to the youngster having the drive to persist and prosper. Suryavanshi has a long road ahead, and it is up to him to pave it with ballast and stride with confidence.

Toronto Nationals dominated with both bat and ball to dethrone defending champions Montreal Tigers by 8 wickets in an engrossing final to be crowned the winners of the fourth season of the Global T20 Canada on Sunday. Toronto Nationals thus clinched their maiden title in North America’s premier T20 competition. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also visited the Global T20 Canada venue during the league and met the management of Montreal Tigers, and then he was presented with a jersey.

Toronto skipper Colin Munro won the toss and saw his decision to field first vindicated in spectacular fashion as Montreal suffered a batting collapse to only manage a paltry total of 96/9 in their 20 overs.

Andries Gous then came up with a match-winning half-century to ensure a rather one-sided victory for Toronto Nationals. The innings was even more remarkable due to the fact that he had suffered a broken finger, a short while after arriving at the crease. But the USA international fought through the pain to remain unbeaten on 58 runs off 49 balls and ensure that Toronto Nationals secured victory in spectacular fashion.

The challenging batting conditions at the TD Stadium in Brampton were rendered even more difficult by a spell of heavy rain that delayed the toss by a couple of hours.

Australian pacer Jason Behrendorff made good use of the conditions to produce a superb display of swing bowling for remarkable figures of 3/8 in his four overs. That triggered a batting collapse in the Montreal top order and put Toronto firmly in the driver’s seat.

The Tigers suffered their first blow quite early with Toronto pacer Romario Shepherd sending opener Praveen Kumar back to the pavilion in the second over.

Montreal suffered a double blow in the very next over as Jason Behrendorff dismissed Gerhard Erasmus (2) and Tim Seifert (0) off consecutive deliveries.

Chris Lynn (3) did not stick around too long either as the Montreal skipper tried a wild slog off Behrendorff only to offer an easy top edge to Toronto wicketkeeper Unmukt Chand.

Sherfane Rutherford (1) went back almost as soon as he arrived, offering an easy catch off Junaid Siddiqui‘s bowling to leave the Tigers in deep trouble with half their batting line-up back in the dugout before the end of the power play.

However, Corbin Bosch (35) and Jaskaran Singh (16) got together to add 46 runs between them and ensure that the Tigers’ innings lasted the full 20 overs.

The Toronto chase was off to a poor start as skipper Colin Munro was trapped leg before for nought by Azmatullah Omarzai off the second ball of the opening over. Bosch bowled fellow opener Unmukt Chand (4) in the next over to raise hopes of a strong fightback by the Tigers.

However, if the Montreal fans were hoping for a turnaround by their team, Andries Gous and Rassie van der Dussen (30 not out) ensured that they would be severely disappointed with an unbeaten partnership of 85 runs that powered the Nationals over the line without any further hiccups.

Toronto Nationals’ Romario Shepherd was adjudged the bowler of the tournament for his 14 wickets while Brampton Wolves’ wicketkeeper-batter George Munsey was named the batter of the tournament for topping the charts with 218 runs.

Canadian youngster Dilpreet Bajwa, who represented the runners-up Montreal Tigers, was named the Emerging Player of the tournament, while Toronto Nationals’ UAE import Junaid Siddique was awarded the Player of the tournament.

Former India U-19 World Cup winning captain Unmukt Chand has opened up on his absence from USA’s squad for the recently-concluded T20 World Cup. Chand took retirement from Indian cricket in 2021 before shifting base to the USA for better cricketing opportunities. After playing in the inaugural edition of the Major League Cricket (MLC), as well as other franchise tournaments, Chand became eligible to play for the USA. He had also expressed his wish of playing against India in the T20 World Cup, only to be left out of the squad.

Chand revealed that he was shocked after being left out of T20 World Cup squad, added that he had a feeling of being “sucked inside”.

“That wasn’t an ideal situation to be in. Because personally for me, this was what I had dreamed for the last three years. Obviously, it was a big shock. And it took me time to sort of come to terms with it. It’s never easy as a player, having lost all those things back home in India, to having this one goal, which had kept me going for the last three years not happening. So it is difficult. I won’t say which just happened. But it was difficult. I was not my best self for some time,” Chand told Cricbuzz.

Chand also spoke about his inner demons and said that it took a lot of ups and downs to overcome that feeling.

“That was a very internal battle and it’s a sucker basically. It keeps sucking you inside and inside. That feeling would linger on for a day and then go away and then come back again. The reality would hit me in different phases. Once you keep going through that automatically you keep getting better. There comes a time when you’re like it didn’t happen, that’s it. I’m not even thinking about it,” he added.

Chand, 31, has a point to prove, and started off the second season of Major League Cricket (MLC) – USA’s franchise T20 league – with a swashbuckling half-century.

Interestingly, Chand’s present MLC franchise is Los Angeles Knight Riders (LAKR), who are owned by the Knight Riders group. Many might remember that Chand’s downfall started when he was famously clean bowled by Kolkata Knight Riders pacer Brett Lee in the opening ball of IPL 2013. He made 68 off 45 balls, hitting six 4s and three 6s.