Humans of Bombay — a photo blog on social media that captures the lives of people in Mumbai — got Singh to talk. He spoke about his childhood — when he used to rush to the playground when the school bell rang, only to return home for dinner.
When he got a gold medal in skating at the age of 10, his father Yograj Singh, also a cricketer, understood he’d rather play sports than study. “I understand you can’t study but if you love sports so much at least take one that can get you somewhere…focus on cricket,” Singh still remembered his father advising him this. That’s how it started.
Even though Singh struggled while chasing his dream, he knew one thing — that he wanted to play for India. The fire in him never died down.
Singh said his real turning point was when he performed better than ever in the Under 19 World Cup.
“I remember at that point, I would watch Tendulkar and Ganguly on my television set and know on every fibre of my being that someday I would be out there playing with them— I felt it, I knew it; I believed it,” Singh has said in the post. And when he finally got down to doing it in his first international game in 2000, he remembered how they soon turned into family.
The post shows how Singh has taken all the low-points in his stride. He believes failures are inevitable. “One cannot always live up to the expectations when a nation of 1.2 billion people wants you to win every single game,” he said.
Because of the dedication and love he has for the game, he said how he even chose to be in denial about his deteriorating health first. “When life knocks down you have a choice — to get up. So I thought to myself -‘get up and do it again’,” he said about his fight with cancer.
