From Beed to Benoni— the incredible journey of Sachin

Sachin Dhas, named after Sachin Tendulkar, overcame challenges to secure a spot in India's U-19 cricket team.

His police officer mother didn’t want cricket to be Sachin Dhas’ focus in life but the father knew that he was destined to make it big on the 22-yard strip despite spending a better part of his life training on 11-yard grass tracks that pass for infrastructure in his home-town Beed.

On Tuesday, his 96-run knock, along with skipper Uday Saharan’s 81, was a key factor in ensuring that India sneaked into the age-group show-piece’s final for a fifth consecutive time.

“You only have half pitches over here (in Beed). Sachin came here with his father when he was four and a half years old and even before going to South Africa, he trained on half turfs,” said an ecstatic Sheikh Azhar, the area’s most famous coach who shaped Dhas’ early years.

Named after the iconic Mumbaikar, who is synonymous with Indian cricket, Sachin is a fan of Virat Kohli, the modern great he has perhaps seen more closely although he wears the number 10 jersey which was owned by Tendulkar in every sense of the word.

“I named him after Sachin Tendulkar when he was born in 2005 because I was a huge fan but he also likes Virat Kohli a lot,” declared his father Sanjay.

Asked about his practice hours, Dhas senior revealed, “Four hours in the morning and three and half hours in the evening, including gym work. It’s seven and half hours per day. I must give credit to Azhar, his coach. Without him, we wouldn’t have seen this day.”

“The training part in Beed was certainly tough but not the selection part in age group state teams. Maharashtra Cricket Association (MCA) has been fair to my son. He performed at every level and he was always picked on merit.”