Exclusive Interview: "Glenn McGrath is a hero for me", says Saurabh Netravalkar

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Saurabh Netravalkar, the Mumbai left arm pacer gets candid with Deep Mehta and Param Kothari in an exclusive interview where he opens up about his formative years, cricket, academics and much more.

At what age did you start playing cricket and when did it become a career option?

I grew up playing gully cricket in my society. As young kids, we used to watch a lot of cricket on television. We used to play competitively trying to emulate our cricketing idols. Proper season ball cricket began when I joined the school summer camp when I was 9 years old. I was noticed by the then coach; when I bowled well, batted confidently and tried to compete against some of the senior boys.

The subsequent year, I was picked for the U-14 team. Our school team used to barely reach the second round in the inter-school tournaments, but we used to play with enthusiasm. Later, in the following year, my father read a newspaper article and took me to Churchgate at the ELF Vengsarkar Cricket Academy at the Oval Maidan for an open selection trial of U-13 boys. Our intention of going there was just to realize where I stood. It was the first time I ever saw proper nets and turf pitches with grass outfield, since in school we used to play on a mat. I was super excited to see all this and just tried to enjoy every moment. To everyone’s surprise I was selected for my fast bowling.

We used to have training five days a week, from 3pm to 6pm. This was when the journey began. I got special permission to leave half an hour early from school. My mom or dad used to travel with me to churchgate and used to sit for the entire 3 hours watching me play, encouraging me throughout as well as making sure that I completed my studies in time. I really feel blessed to have such parents who have sacrificed so much for me. At the same time, I was playing both U-14 and U-16 school tournaments from the age of 11. After one year of being on the bench for ELF club, I got selected in the team, performed well and got drafted into the U-15 Mumbai Team. I was passionate throughout, but being selected in the state team, made me realize that if I continued to work wholeheartedly, I could make it big.

That being said, your family seems to be supportive, but at any point were they reluctant in anyway with studies being a matter of concern?
As I said earlier, I feel blessed to have an extremely supportive family and without their sacrifices, I would have been nowhere near to what I have achieved so far. My dad who is also very passionate about the game, till date comes for each and every match that I play and watches all my matches for the entire day. The only restriction I had was that my studies shouldn’t be affected. But personally, I used to enjoy studying and learning new things. So, I never let my studies be affected. In fact, the desire to play sharpened my learning skills. Mom used to ask me to complete my homework before going to play and I used to take it as a challenge. I studied as quickly as I could, completed my work and then rushed to play. I just couldn’t spend a single day without playing cricket.

Representing India in the Under-19 world cup was one of the highest points of your career so far. Tell us about your experience.

The selection in the Indian U-19 Team was a result of the consistent performances at all levels right since the age of 13. During these years, I was selected for National Cricket Academy, Bangalore training camps. During these month long camps along with cricketing skills we were taught and told about the scientific aspects behind the game like the bio-mechanics, body alignments and basic techniques of batting, bowling, fielding etc., as well as focusing on our mental skills. Due to this training, I benefited the most by being able to set goals: both long term and short term, having. I developed a long term vision. We got to know people from different parts of the country. Cricket being supremely competitive in India , especially in Mumbai, we have to constantly go through the grind and this made me mentally tougher.

Finally, the selection happened. The feeling to represent the country cannot be described in words. It is certainly a supremely proud feeling, but at the same time it comes with a humongous responsibility. But after wearing the Indian jersey, I used to completely transform. My energy levels automatically quadrupled and all I knew was that I had to give no less than my best effort every single moment that I was on the ground and just enjoy every moment to the fullest. Prior to the World Cup we were having a tour in Australia and one in South Africa. We as a team had a good rapport already, since we had grown together, lived together during our month long camps. It was an awesome journey. Training together as a unit, getting the opportunity to travel to different places, learning to adapt to different climatic and pitch conditions and the oppositions’ diverse styles of play.

Individually I did quite well throughout, both in Australia and South Africa where we won, as well as in the World Cup where we reached the quarters.

The proudest feeling was when before every match, the National Anthem used to be played and that really pumped us up. I really wish I can experience that feeling again!

Having an aggregate score of 74% is truly exceptional. How did you manage to be so consistent in academics even with your rigorous cricket schedule?

I have always been very curious to know new things and ask a lot of questions till I understood concepts deeply. I loved mathematics and science since school. During my 10th standard, I had to decide whether I could manage science along with my hectic cricketing schedule which was growing more hectic by the day. I thought rather than taking some other branch and do it for name sake, why not take up science, do it whole heartedly and try and excel in both fields. My parents gave me the freedom to decide, and fully supported me throughout. I am a firm believer of aiming to excel and to strive to be the best in whatever you do. So, on hearing about IIT JEE classes from my friends, I went along with them, gave the scholarship aptitude test. I earned a decent scholarship and decided to join the classes and started preps for JEE. By far the most hectic year for me was standard 12. Dodging classes, clashing practices, matches with exams, college practicals, personal studying etc., was very hectic but I used to take it as a challenge. All these activities made me a very good time and energy manager. I had developed a habit of prioritizing stuff depending on the immediate situation at hand. It was the same year in which I got selected for India U19 tour to Australia and I missed the JEE exam (blessing in disguise) since I was on tour. Gave AIEEE without any prep the very next day. Then I had around 3 weeks for CET. Since my concepts were strong due to JEE classes, I could prep decently well for CET…I scored well and got in Sardar patel Institute of Technology (SPIT).

I faced lots of discouragement before going for engineering on how would I manage and it’s too heavy a course and things like that but I was firm since I knew I loved it and my parents supported me.

The first year of engineering was the most difficult for me to manage. Since, during the 1st semester I had gone for the World Cup in New Zealand and managed to appear for only 2 papers. I covered it up in 2nd semester appearing for 10 subjects at a stretch. In fact every odd semester, was a peak time of cricket season so, I used to literally play an inter-state match for 4 days followed by an examination. I always had my laptop besides me even on tours. I used to perform all programming practicals on it. I received immense support from my friends and even all professors supported me since I showed eagerness to learn and I used to make sure that I spent that extra time and understood all my concepts.

How was the experience at the MRF camp under Glen McGrath?

Glen McGrath is a hero for me and it was a supreme feeling to interact with him when he visited MRF pace foundation in Chennai. I got to learn a lot, not only skill wise, but also about thought processes and mental preparation to succeed from that camp. The summary I drew from it is that we need to keep things simple, set process oriented goals, dream big and most importantly keep the love for what we are doing alive.