Satyam Chaudhary, the young cricketer from Mumbai and son of a groundsman, made his debut for his native in the u-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy against Baroda in Gujarat. Satyam’s father Arun works at the Santacruz Lions Club ground. Earlier, Eknath Solkar and Ankush Jaiswal, who were sons of groundsmen also represented Mumbai in competitive cricket.
The leg-spinner, Satyam learned cricket at Santacruz, where his father has been working for the last 26 years. As a young cricketer, he was nurtured, by Dinesh Nair, Nilesh Walawalkar and Anil Muzumdar, the father of former Mumbai batting star, Amol.
“They [Muzumdar and Walawalkar] encouraged me to bowl leg-spin when I started playing cricket three years ago and Dinesh sir provided me with equipment,” the young cricketer was heard saying over the phone from Baroda.
However, Satyam did not get an opportunity to bowl on the first day of the ongoing three-day match as he watched his team register 329 for two. Skipper Pragnesh Kanpillewar was unbeaten on 144 (25×4) while fellow opener Sahil Jadhav missed his century by six runs. They put on 162 for the opening stand. Mushir Khan scored 77 with the help of 11 fours.
Satyam is an all-rounder as he attends Public Hindi Night High School in Santacruz as practice session eats his daytime. He is also good in dramatics as he played freedom fighter, Chandrasekhar Azad in a play.
Satyam is also a karate student, having won gold medals in the U-52 and U-65 weight category at the state level championships held at Badlapur and Kandivli last year. Satyam has also represented the famous Shivaji Park Gymkhana in the ‘A’ Division of the Dr HD Kanga Cricket League. At Shivaji Park, he trained under the watchful eyes of left-arm spin great Padmakar Shivalkar. Recently, Satyam became the highest wicket-taker (21) for Sunil Gavaskar XI in the Payyade Trophy U-16 selection tournament.
“Shivalkar sir encouraged me to flight the ball while bowling my leg-spin. This helped me claim more wickets,” Satyam signed off.
