Professional Cricket, More Injuries

But because I was not making great strides on the relationship front, I wanted a hobby other than work to take my attention away from it. So I took the bold decision to invest my own money to finally take my love for Cricket seriously with the absolute determination that I will play for India in the 2019 World Cup. I joined the local Cricket club paying ₹6000/month which was a significant sum for me.

I had had my bike couriered to Chennai. I lived in Thiruvanmiyur, drove to the office in the morning to Sholinganallur through the OMR or sometimes the less busier ECR road and after work, drove to Thoraipakkam for the coaching after and drove back home late night. Chennai had a notorious driving culture. My bike was Kerala registered which very frequently caught the attention of the traffic police who I had to bribe ₹100 every time to avoid a bigger fine or being taken to the police station. Driving all the way to the office to the club and home every day was a dangerous affair.

The club, Cricket Drme, was a prominent one in the city. The practice was intense, some days just involved running till I vomitted. I was so dedicated that I went for practice almost every day. I played Division 5 and it sometimes needed me to take days off from work to play ODIs across the state mostly around Chennai. Eminent personalities visited us frequently to coach. Many of the children were from very well to do families who practiced from a very early age and had the financial means to just pay their way into a team - 2 essential ingredients to reach the top. The level of love I had for the sport was equal to the passion I had for the Web. All I was doing was work hard during the day, play hard all the way until 10 in the night and repeat.

But playing without proper warm up/cool down and not tending to the injuries immediately coupled with a 9–5 day job which some days extended beyond 5 and an increasingly worsening smoking habit and an extremely poor diet turned out to be a disastrous combination. I kept injuring the same right ankle over and over again. The worst of them was in 2015 in Chennai when Mignon Du Preez, the then South African Women's Cricket team captain and Jolene Campher had come to my club for a coaching session and we were practicing sliding techniques. When it was my turn, I snapped my ankle so bad that I heard my ligament (or whatever) break and the noise crystal clear, and was left with an agonising injury. For the next few weeks, I walked around wrapped my leg in crepe band and intense pain. I didn't get it consulted. I used the Bangalore trips as a way to rejuvenate my injury laden body.

All in all, I loved the fact that I was being paid to travel, work for Apple, and do the 2 things I loved doing - Web and Cricket. But I knew in the back of my mind that it was not sustainable.

And amidst all that excitement, I forgot the very reason I moved to Chennai.