Cricket takes backseat to chicken for IPL's youngest Vaibhav Suryavanshi

If there is one thing that competes for Vaibhav Suryavanshirsquos attention every bit as fiercely as the cricket ball does it is foodmdashespecially chicken ldquoIf you give him chicken to eat you will eventually have to take his hands away because he will never stop eatingrdquo chuckled his amused father SanjivFor the lefthanded batter and spinner from Bihar the simplest joys of lifemdashlike devouring a plate of foodmdashhold equal importance to the game that has just propelled him to IPL stardom at faraway JeddahDespite hailing from one of Indiarsquos poorest states Vaibhavrsquos talent has been nurtured since he was five Without the luxury of fancy academies or professional coaches the 13yearolds path to greatness is a testament to the unwavering dedication of one man his farmer father SanjivSanjivs years of toil most likely spent in the hopes of achieving something monumental for his family of five finally paid off when on Monday his youngest son laughed his way to the bank as Rajasthan Royals snapped him up for Rs 110 crore three times higher than his base price As the mandarins of the game sit up and take notice his lowermiddleclass family and his smalltown roots are practically bursting with excitementWhen we caught up with Sanjiv on Monday evening he apologised for the delay in taking our call ldquoMaaf kijiyega Sorry he sheepishly admitted when we finally connected his phone ringing off the hook from wellwishersldquoI had a small business to run when he was a child but I had to quit because he needed me to be there during his practice and tournaments As you know cricket is an expensive sport and we didnrsquot have much money to cover those expenses So I was forced to sell my land so he could continue playing There was no regular income and I had no other choice He started training at the age of five but I had been training him at home for two years before that Then I made him ready and took him to Samastipur and later Patna Three times a week it would be Samastipur and the other three days it would be Patna I have been like a shadow to him all these yearsrdquoAlso ReadRecord breakers to surprises Full team lineups and auction price shockersVaibhavs rise to fame however wasnrsquot some overnight miracle Having made his domestic debut at just 12 years old in the Ranji Trophy which came earlier this year against Mumbai he became a household name when as a teenager he struck a blistering century in just 58 balls against Australiarsquos Under19 teamHe has continued to impress most recently being named to Indiarsquos Under19 squad for the upcoming ACC Under19 Asia Cup If that wasnrsquot enough he has also played five matches for Bihar in the Ranji Trophy and more recently made his T20 debut for them in the Syed Mushtaq Ali TrophyBut as Vaibhav basks in the welldeserved spotlight not all the attention has been favourable Alongside the applause a cloud of rumours has been swirling around his age with some suggesting that the prodigious talent might not be 13 as officially claimed but possibly as old as 15ldquoIn 2020 he was only nine years old I remember taking him to the U16 trials and a mandatory bone test was conducted for all players His bone test was also done there You can check with the BCCI and ask what age came up in that test He looked very young until last year but after he started playing statelevel matches his diet improved and he began to put on weight and height If you look at his picture from last year hersquoll look very young These changes happened only in the past yearrdquo clarified SanjivDespite the noise he remains focused on the bigger picture ldquoI can tell you that I will ensure he gets called up to the India team within the next two yearsrdquoAlso ReadKohlis 21 cr to Bumrahs 18 cr What will the Perth Test XI earn in IPL 2025Now that Vaibhav has landed an IPL contract things will surely be different The family once concerned with scraping together enough money for basic training is now poised for a dramatic shift in lifestyle With his IPL debut on the horizon it seems like the next few years could see Vaibhav living his dream both on and off the fieldFor someone of Vaibhavrsquos age grasping the concept of a crore can be a bit of a stretch When asked how exactly he plans to shield his young prodigy from the seductive allure of money talk Sanjiv said ldquoBaccha cricket ke alawa aur kuch nahi karta Agar TV mein koi match chal raha ho toh wohi dekh leta hai baaki aur kuch nahi Film dekhna mobile chalana kuch nahi He does nothing other than cricket If there is a match on TV thats all he watches he doesnt do anything else No watching movies no using the phone nothingrdquoI have taken some loans in the past and I first need to pay them off The remaining money will be spent on him I plan to create an athome net but that could attract a lot of people so I want to set it up at a lessknown location Everything will fall in placerdquo he signed off