Taking fame in his stride

Manish Pandey is clearly enjoying his newfound star status. Life for a hitherto unheralded cricketer has undergone a heady change after becoming the first Indian to score a hundred in the Indian Premier League.

That stunning 73-ball 114 for Royal Challengers Bangalore against the Deccan Chargers in the league game last week has elevated Pandey to hero status. By Wednesday, the 19-year-old was inundated with phone calls and he jokingly says he has received more than thousand calls since his arrival from Johannesburg on Tuesday evening.

And what’s more, he can’t believe that it took him more than one hour to get out of the airport, besieged as he was.

“It was a mad rush at airport. Photographs autographs and interviews, it was very tir ing. But who does n’t want fame?” Pandey says with a chuckle.

But he then turns seri ous. “The best piece of advice that I received was from our bowling coach Eric Simmons. He told me to be humble. And I want to be like that and achieve more in cricket.” This is not the first time Pandey has received accolades.

He was part of the U19 Indian team that won the World Cup in Malaysia last year but he did not have a great Ranji Trophy season.

But the IPL seems to have changed all that.

At first, Pandey did not get an opportunity as he played two matches at number 7.However, with Robin Uthappa failing as opener and Sreevats Goswami and Wasim Jaffer not utilising their chances, Manish got his chance.

bhai asked me to be prepared to open the batting. So there was a little bit of pressure to do well. Having got an opportunity to open the batting it was a golden chance. But at the same time, I was batting well in the nets so was confident of doing well.” “After the meeting, Anil arrived, Pandey did not let his captain down. He started on a shaky note, trying too hard to get off the blocks and had problem in timing the ball. “I was not middling the ball properly in the beginning. But I was seeing the ball well so that made me go for big shots and it helped that I was not very nervous,” he recalled.

“But once I reached 25And when the big day odd, I knew I had to convert the start. And then even before I realised I was in the 80s. It all happened so fast.” With a hundred in sight, Manish did not lose the plot.

The impressive part of the innings was the way he paced the innings.

“The plan was to get into the 90s with couple of boundaries and take singles till I reach hundred. I didn’t want to lose such an opportunity and thankfully, everything fell into place,” he added.

It was then that Pandey realised he really belonged at the international level and he attributes his success to the advice of his seniors.

“After I scored a century I knew that I belonged to this level. But all along, Anil and Rahul bhai had been very supportive on the tour and kept saying “be positive, you will get your chance to prove yourself.” “I was focussed to do well this time in the IPL. You don’t get to play along international stars every time. It was a very good experience,” he said.

Having taken the first step towards success, Pandey is focusing on the bigger challenges.

And, fame is just one of them.