From rags to riches...

P Manikrao Sarvesh Kumar and Paidikalva Vijay Kumar are getting the taste of the high life, but not so long ago they were struggling to make both ends meet

MUMBAI: Million dollar cricket leagues are changing the lives of cricketers and it’s not only the rich who are getting richer. Paidikalva Vijay Kumar and P Manikrao Sarvesh Kumar were struggling to make both ends meet. The advent of the cash-rich T20 leagues heralded a drastic change in their lives. They now play for the Deccan Chargers.
 
Vijay Kumar used to travel to Hyderabad regularly. Working as a cleaner in a passenger bus that plied between Cudappa and Hyderabad, Vijay Kumar, even in his wildest dream didn’t picture making a career out of cricket.

For a good part of his life the Class IX drop out earned Rs 30 a day as a daily labourer. He also worked as loader in a local transport company in his village Paidikalva. His father, David, did odd-jobs to keep the hearth burning, while his mother was a vegetable vendor. The family lived in a mud hut.

So when the Andhra paceman opened the room service menu at the official five-star hotel he couldn’t get himself to order even the cheapest meal with prices starting from Rs 1,000. “I would have fed my family for a month with Rs 1,000. It would prick my conscience if I ate such expensive food all of a sudden,” he said.

Kumar first held a cricket ball only two years ago. But he made giant strides and soon broke into the Andhra Ranji team.

Now, after pocketing $20,000 for the first year of the IPL he wants to build a comfortable and spacious house for his parents. His father now leads a more relaxed life.

Andrew Symonds and Adam Gilchrist now know a few words of Telugu. Vijay Kumar has been teaching the Aussies the local language.

Sarvesh said that Vijay now wants to buy a ‘Learn Spoken English’ book. Sarvesh hails from Eddamailaram in Sangareddy. He used to travel 60 kilometers everyday to play cricket in Hyderabad. Father Manikrao is a welder at the ordinance factory.

Before making a mark in Hyderabad cricket circles, Sarvesh took up the job as a supervisor and put his cricket dreams on the back-burner. His father’s Rs 4,000 a month salary wasn’t sufficient to run a family, which included two daughters.
 
His Medak-based coach Rajendra Reddy provided him shoes and cricket whites; VVS Laxman encouraged the medium-pacer.

“The other day, my father met Adam Gilchrist. He was left speechless. He couldn’t believe that I was staying in the same hotel as these great players, sharing the same dressing room,” Sarvesh said.

“This game has given us so much and so has this new league. Now, it is our turn to pay back the favour to the team and everyone who has ever helped us,” Sarvesh said speaking on behalf of Vijay Kumar also.