This interview was conducted on Mother’s Day, and perhaps that’s why I will start with this story. Sai Sudharsan has been the star batter for Gujarat Titans this season, and has only gotten better with every passing game. And in the last one, he even notched up his first IPL hundred. But then, that’s not the story. Sudharsan had invited his mother and father to the game, a day before Mother’s Day, to make it special for them. His mother, however, had other plans. She informed him that she had work commitments and wouldn’t be able to make it to the game. Sai, while upset, did not make much of it and decided to leave the matter there.
As he got to a 100, his first thought was how good it would have been had his parents come to the game. “I actually thought to myself that it would have made it that much more special if they had come,” said Sai. “To score the hundred in front of them would have been a dream come true. I had no idea that my mother had said she wouldn’t be able to make it to give me a surprise, and it was only when our team manager mentioned that they were there that I got to know. And it was only after the game I met my mother, and she told me she did not want me to know she would be coming.”
The celebration, however, did not take place at the ground. A hundred in a match-winning cause, and when his skipper also scored a century, deserved a celebration. On reaching the team hotel, the management asked Sai to go to the eighth floor. “I thought they would be cutting a cake or something, and did not know my parents would be there,” said an emotional Sai. “Only when I reached the eighth floor did I see my father and mother there, and trust me, it meant a lot to me. To share my joy with them is what we play the sport for.”
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For the record, both his parents played sport at the highest level, and his father also represented the country at the South Asian Federation Games. His mother too was a national-level player and Sai grew up in a sports environment, which taught him the values integral to sport. “They know about the pressure that sport brings in its wake,” said Sai. “They also know that you will lose more than you will win. They could tell me these things and it helped me a lot growing up. While I still have a lot of things to learn, I have to say my home environment made a real difference to me.”
What his parents have also taught him is that the team is always the priority, and individual achievements don’t matter if they don’t help the team win. And this was evident when he said, “I wish the hundred had come earlier in the season, for that would have helped us a great deal more. But nonetheless, it is a learning and will help me going forward.”
That Sai has talent is known. That he also has his heart in the right place was evident from this interaction. Clearly, the world is his oyster, and his mother will surely witness many more hundreds in the future from her son. And if his form is anything to go by, some of them will be in India colours as well.
The full interview with Sai Sudharsan will be featured on all RevSportz platforms at 12pm on Monday, May 13.