Mumbai software engineer Saurabh finds his calling in United States cricket team

Saurabh Netravalkar

Former Mumbai pacer Saurabh Netravalkar, 26, left Mumbai's cricketing shores in 2013 to pursue further studies in the United States of America. Two years later, he made a comeback to the game, playing tournaments on weekends in San Francisco and Los Angeles, juggling his schedule as a software engineer. His effort bore fruit as the left-arm pacer got picked into the US national cricket team a few months ago, and more recently, for the Caribbean Premier League.

Netravalkar, who represented India in the 2010 U-19 World Cup in New Zealand alongside KL Rahul, is thrilled to share the dugout with the likes of former Pakistan skipper Shoaib Malik as part of CPL's Guyana Amazon Warriors. "I am so excited to bowl to star batsmen like Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard and Dwayne Bravo. I am looking forward to the challenge," Netravalkar told mid-day from Guyana recently.

"All my teammates in Guyana Amazon Warriors, including captain Shoaib Malik, are very approachable and supportive. They are quite encouraging. I want to use this opportunity to learn the game from top-class cricketers," added Netravalkar, 26. It's a struggle though to maintain his fitness level for competitive cricket while he also has to spend long hours at his job at Oracle. "I am in the US national team, so I need to stay fit. After office hours (post-5.30 pm) I head to the gym. I want to make it big as a professional cricketer," he said.

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