When Sanglaap Basu emerged from the car clutching his Emerging Player (Junior) trophy on July 12, his neighbours at Sunrise Greens in New Town were waiting in the driveway with garlands and fireworks. They greeted him with applause and shrieks, taking turns to embrace him. “Aisa mauka milta hai kahan?” one of them gushed.
“It reminded me of the welcome accorded by his neighbours to captain Rohit Sharma on his homecoming with the ICC T20 World Cup,” says his beaming father Saptarshi, seated in their 15th floor apartment overlooking Bagjola Canal on the fringes of Action Area I.
The 11-year-old had gone on a 23-day tour of England, to play with English school and club teams, representing Mumbai Cricket Club, run by Jwala Singh, who counts Prithvi Shaw and Yashasvi Jaiswal among his students.
“I had sent a video recording of his batting to coach Singh on WhatsApp. He asked us to come for a trial.”
After looking at him in the nets for five hours, Singh offered to take him on his club’s under-16 tour of England. “There were two teams going from his club, the other being an under-19 team which featured Mumbai Ranji player Divyansh Saxena, Jaiswal’s opening partner at the Under-19 World Cup in 2020. While one team played with the under-17 team the older players played with the first XI or the senior team of each of the clubs visited in England,” Saptarshi said.
The boys set off on June 21. “Most of them were from Mumbai, except Sanglaap and five other boys from Hong Kong, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Australia, Kuwait. They played matches against teams from Eton College, Chessington Cricket Club, Slough Cricket Club, Bolder Academy, Kent Cricket Club, Harrow School and Hampton School. (Former India opener and Mumbai Ranji captain) Wasim Jaffer went with them as their coach and mentor,” he said.
Sanglaap shone through for his bowling, picking up two Man of the Match awards, for taking three for 19 against Slough Cricket Club and two for 15 against Bolder Academy. He also got wickets against Eton College, getting their captain out, and three wickets against Harrow School. “He was the highest wicket-taker from the Mumbai squad on the tour with 14 wickets. Amalendu Banerjee, the head of cricket at Hampton School, said he would try to get him over next year in a school exchange programme."
The cold weather in England was a challenge. “I could not grip the ball, the fingers would get so numb. Nor were the pitches supportive of spin. It is easier to spin the ball in sweaty conditions,” Sanglaap said.
The boy was the youngest in the squad and faced rough treatment initially from the older boys. “They would tease him that he could pick wickets only of tail-enders. So when he got two top-order batsmen out in the match against Bolder Academy, a video recording has him gesturing at his teammates. In fact, when the umpire, who was the host team’s coach and adjudicator of the MoM award, announced his name, he commented that Sanglaap bowled well ‘despite getting a stick from his own teammates’.”
When his roommate, an older boy, called Saptarshi accusing Sanglaap of posting a video of him teasing the latter in the team WhatsApp group, Saptarshi had to settle the matter.
So full was their itinerary that there was not much scope to do the touristy things. Still Sanglaap has pictures in front of Buckingham Palace, London Eye and London Bridge. “I was the only player in our group to opt to visit the factory of GrayNicolls, a bat manufacturer, in Yorkshire. They have signed bats of icons like Alastair Cook, David Gower and Brian Lara who scored 501 not out for Warwickshire. They have made a great new bat called Hypernova,” said Sanglaap, who uses a 900g DSCbat and a 1.086kg SG bat.
Sanglaap, who sees himself as a batting all-rounder, said his goal was to win the Emerging Player trophy.Despite having achieved that, he regrets not getting enough scope to bat.“He has got offers to play for five clubs here. He says he will choose the one that lets him bat,” his father smiles.
The boy, who was once boycotted by his complex friends for hitting too many boundaries, making them retrieve the ball and then bowling themout cheaply, has played in Amber Roy Trophy last year for the under 13 team of Taltala Ekata Sangha. His practice pad is in CB Block, NewTown, under coach Tapas Majumdar.“Sir loves him so much that though the centre is shut on Monday, he trains Sanglaap separately if he turns up,” says his father, who used to play corporate cricket himself and bowls to Sanglaap at times.
Saptarshi has also contacted Dinesh Lad, Rohit Sharma’s coach.“Sir bowled to him and asked us to enrol him at Swami Vivekananda International School, with which he is associated. But he is in the middle of the school year at Don Bosco ParkCircus, so we don’t want to shift him to Mumbai now,” said his motherLopamudra, pointing out that till Class IV, he was good in studies.
So focused is Sanglaap about cricket that he has embraced a strict diet regimen. “He used to be a momo fan but would not touch the snack now,” she said. “He has added chia seeds to his diet on learning Virat Kohli has them.”
The T20 World Cup just got over but ask Sanglaap which he chose when an India match took place on TV during his practice hours, his answer was prompt — practice.
