The phone hasn’t stopped buzzing for Dalip Choudhary since the time his son Mukul marked his arrival for Lucknow Super Giants with a match-winning unbeaten 54 off 27 balls against Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens. LSG were struggling at 104/5 when Mukul landed at the crease, in pursuit of Kolkata’s 181/4. He would help rattle off the remaining 78 runs in the next 11 overs.
Dalip remembers the day he had decided that if he had two sons he would ensure both became cricketers, such was his love for the game. One year after his marriage, Mukul was born, followed by a daughter and Dalip went on to fulfill every Indian father’s dream, to make his son a cricketer.
Dalip sacrificed his dreams of cracking the Rajasthan Administrative Service (RAS) and worked in real estate, before enrolling Mukul into the SBS Cricket Academy at Sikar which is 80 kilometers from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan. Sikar is from where some of India’s tallest giants in basketball had emerged from owing to their physicality, but cricket needed far more specialised coaching to achieve his goals.
“Even before marriage, I dreamt of making my children cricketers. From childhood till 10, I focused on Mukul’s physical training. After that, I turned him into a cricketer. I knew it won’t be easy,” his father recalls.
After not clearing his Rajasthan administrative services exams for six years, Dalip decided one day in 2017, to sell his house. He wanted to start a hotel business and he took a one crore loan from Axis bank and another crore from his brother. He also borrowed a crore from his friend, and his debt rose to three crores.
“I wanted to do something to earn money on a daily basis but it didn’t work out. I had to go to jail because of money issues. My financial condition was very bad then and there were land disputes. I never went to jail for criminal cases but it was related to land. So I decided that let’s focus on my child,” he narrates.
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The father soon shifted Mukul’s training to Aravali Cricket Academy in the outskirts of Jaipur. The way his son batted, Dalip knew somehow that he had it in him, but needed that validation from someone who had actually made a champion batsman.
He enrolled into a 14 day vacation camp conducted by father of well-known cricketer Yuvraj Singh, Yograj. It cost him 2.5 lakh rupees for that camp and Dalip once again took a loan for it. A few months later, he came to and met Dinesh Lad, Rohit Sharma’s coach and someone told him that a South Zone former cricketer ran an academy in Gurgaon, so he decided to send him there to face good bowlers.
“I just needed that validation that he is good, as a father I knew that he had it in him but sometimes it might just be the love of a father. So I took him to places like , Mumbai, . In that 14 day-camp, Yograj Singh saw him and asked Mukul, ‘who was accompanying him’. He said ‘my father’. Yograj called me and said aapka ladka ek din India khelega. It was his fourth camp. I got the validation and left the camp the next day. I met Dinesh Lad, who also said there’s nothing to worry about,” he recalls.
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Those coaches saw what others couldn’t, the ability to hit the ball. Back at home, relatives began to question Dalip’s move. “Khud toh kharab hue hain, ladke ko bhi kharab kar rahe hain.” The repeated taunt of how he had ruined his own life, and was now wasting his son’s pursuing a sport.
He accompanied his son wherever he went and ensured that Mukul lived properly and had a healthy diet. The loan money kept rising but Dalip knew that in the future, his son will achieve his goals. Mukul had fruitful Syed Mushtaq Ali outings and an unbeaten 54 against Mumbai caught everyone’s eyes. On the auction day, father and son just hoped that he would get picked. Money wasn’t the wish, an opening entry was. They need one chance to showcase his skill. After all, the father and son had been preparing for such a day.
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The 21-year-old broke down after the last IPL game against . He had scored 2. On the subsequent video call, Dalip saw his son’s red eyes, and knew what had happened. “I asked him about his eyes. He told me that he cried. I asked him why he cried. He told me that he scored only 2 runs. He wanted to score a winning shot for his team but then he told me that he will do what no one has ever thought of,” he points out.
Next game, snatched a win from the jaws of defeat. Mukul slammed seven sixes in a pressure chase. It was only his second game under the lights and the ability to soak the pressure made the knock special.
“He has seen pressure all his life, be it my problems, all the running around. So pressure is nothing new. I told him it’s a start and India is the dream.” he says. What happened of the relatives? “Those who had complained all their life must have seen his game and praised him,” Dalip quips.
