The Indian Premier League (IPL) isn’t the most popular T20 league in the world just for its glamour, player duels, packed stadiums, and cricketing richness but also for the fact that it provides a level-pegging platform to everyone, regardless of their background. The story of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) batter Rinku Singh is one of the brightest examples of how IPL can lift someone from the extremes of poverty to superstardom. While the IPL 2022 season showed a glimpse of what Rinku can do with the bat, the 2023 season has given the world a true example of what he is potentially capable of.
The 25-year-old belongs to one of the most humble backgrounds. But even the hard life Rinku and his parents had to go through didn’t see the prodigy lose the big smile he always carries on his face.
His father Khanchand Singh is a gas cylinder delivery man who would haul cylinders onto his cycle and go from house to house to deliver them with the help of his older sons. He and his wife Vina still stay in the two-room ramshackle near a gas cylinder stockyard.
Even Rinku had the offer to join his brother in becoming a sweeper who would mop houses to earn his livelihood. But, the man always believed that he had cricketing potential in him and saw the game as his only way out from the clutches of poverty.
“When I was just starting out and had yet to play proper cricket, I was asked to join my brother for a job. I got a job of sweeping and mopping in a coaching centre. I refused because I didn’t like the work,” Rinku can be heard saying in a video shared by KKR.
“I told everyone that I will play cricket and I stuck with it. I wasn’t very well qualified either but I always believed cricket would take me places. I didn’t have any other option so I put all my focus on cricket. I worked really hard and all those efforts are bearing fruit now,” he added.
After KKR’s history-making victory over the defending champions, Gujarat Titans on Sunday, said that even though the odds were stacked against him, he didn’t lose the belief to score 28 runs in the final 5 balls.
The situation on the field wasn’t much different from his life where his chances of him becoming a professional cricketer were marginal. But, just like the game against Gujarat, the ever-smiling Rinku hit the odds out of the park and is on his way to achieving much more than he already has.
