Co-hosting T20 World Cup will aid growth of the cricket fraternity in USA: Saurabh Netravalkar

Most of us know about the Indian-origin executives leading American companies. There is Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, and Twitter’s Parag Agarwal among others. But how many of us know about the Indian leading America’s national cricket team? 

Cricket in America is still largely in the shadows of more popular sports like American football, basketball and baseball. But the USA national cricket team, led by Mumbai-born Saurabh Netravalkar, is striving to beat the odds and make its presence felt on the international stage. The fact that USA will co-host the T20 World Cup in 2024 is not just a feather in their cap but also an indication of how far they have come. 

The US may be ranked 19th among the 20 ODI nations and 28th in the T20Is, but they are making steady progress in terms of unearthing new talents. With many cricketers like Unmukt Chand, Sami Aslam, Liam Plunkett, Corey Anderson etc playing in the country, we could see the US putting up a formidable side when they host the mega event in 2024.

They are already filled with many talented players like the current skipper Monank Patel, Aaron Jones, Ali Khan to name a few. With more skillful cricketers coming into the system, it's going to be onwards and upwards for US cricket from here.

To throw more light on cricket in the US, Cricket.com caught up with Netravalkar, the former US captain, for a quick chat. Here are a few excerpts: 

How and at what age did cricket happen to you?

I grew up in the suburbs of Mumbai playing typical rubber ball and tennis ball street cricket. The inspiration to play cricket came from my dad, who is a massive follower of the game and he used to play as well.  

I've grown up following and copying all the 90s and 2000s Indian cricketers and even watching any and all other cricket games. Professional cricket kind of began at the age of 10, when I was enrolled in school summer coaching camp. 

Eventually, I played for my school U-14 and U-16 and then got selected to train at Elf Vengsarkar Cricket Academy, U-13 batch at age of around 11. That's when I started training three hours a day, five days a week. I travelled for an hour and half one way on the Mumbai local trains with either mom or dad, who have put in immense sacrifices to support my passion. 

From there on I gradually advanced ranks to Mumbai U-15, National Cricket Academy U-15, U-17, U-19 state and nationals, Senior Club cricket, corporate cricket and so on.

You were India’s leading wicket-taker at the U19 World Cup in 2010 and also took three wickets on your first-class debut. What exactly went wrong after that? Why did you move to the US? 

I played in the 2010 U19 World Cup and was the leading wicket-taker for India. I also was Man of the Series in the pre-world cup tour of South Africa. In parallel, I was also pursuing my Computer Engineering Degree from Sardar Patel Institute of Technology from 2009  to 2013. With immense support from family, professors, peers and my coaches coupled with my passion for the game and my studies, I managed to give justice to both aspects of my life.

After playing for India, I was in the Ranji Trophy Mumbai team circuit consistently and was picked for Irani Trophy (Mumbai vs Rest of India) at age of 18. But I did not get through the playing 11 majorly due to strong competition.  A champion team like Mumbai has a lot of competition.

Mumbai team at that time comprised top-notch international as well as seasoned first-class fast bowlers like Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, Dhawal Kulkarni, Avishkar Salvi, also notably Shardul Thakur was coming up the ranks. Shardul and I share the same birth date and grew up playing together since U-13 days. It was a strong healthy competition to make a mark in the Mumbai team.

After graduating from Computer Engineering Bachelor's I gave up a full-time job opportunity that I earned as a Software Engineer in Pune, to pursue cricket full-time for two years. I trained very hard, continued to perform consistently and my efforts were finally rewarded when I finally made my Ranji Debut in 2013. I also played 10 List A 50 Over games for Mumbai.

In parallel, I was also part of Kolkata Knight Riders, Rajasthan Royals and Mumbai Indians training programs, practice matches and fringes at different times. 

So in all, I was working hard, doing reasonably well, but I was still awaiting breaking into the next level of the game. In 2015, I decided to explore opportunities and pursue academics. 

I prepared for my USA University Applications as I was also very passionate about Compute Sciences. I got an admission offer from the prestigious Ivy League Cornell University, and that's when I decided to move on and start a new journey in the Computer Science field.

You are currently working in the US.  Where do you work and how do you strike a balance between work and cricket?

I work as a Senior Software Engineer at Oracle in the San Francisco Bay Area. I focus on one thing at a time but give 100% justice to it at both work and cricket. I usually train either morning or afternoon during lunch break (fitness sessions), and skill training at night after work (mostly indoor sessions) during the week. 

Weekends are mostly outdoor training or flying/driving for local tournaments. My team at Oracle has been very supportive and the ability to work remotely as a software engineer helps me a lot as well.  

How will you describe USA cricket's growth in recent years? Some new leagues have been started recently. Could you tell us about those? 

In the last three years, USA Cricket Men's National Team has rapidly advanced rankings in 50 over cricket by qualifying in WCL Division 3 and WCL Division 2 to gain ODI Status. We have had a decent run in the current ICC World Cup League 2 so far and we are competing for qualifying for the World Cup 2023. 

Similarly, we recently won the Americas Regional T20 qualifiers and are competing to qualify for the T20 world cup next year. The team has come a long way and we have a tremendous local talent pool owing to the growing competitive local tournaments, especially Minor League Cricket T20 tournament which was a huge success. 

The USA Cricket 50 over National Championships which happened just a few months back also did well. We recently played Ireland, a full-member Nation in a limited-overs series in Florida.  Similarly, the U-19 team and Women's Team are also growing rapidly and there is a tremendous number of upcoming promising youngsters.

USA will co-host the 2024 T20 World Cup. How significant will this be to the game’s development in the country?

Huge significance as it will aid the growth of the ever-expanding cricket fraternity here. Hopefully, even more significant if our national team competes and does well at this stage.