001Hi guys, I'm Rish P. I'm Aru. And I'm Rish N. And welcome to the Hoyala Stunt Conversations. So tell me about your events. So I first started playing cricket with my dad when I was about like 3 years old. And he's always loved cricket. He's loved it ever since he moved here from India. So that's how I first got into cricket. and coach Vijay and his academy gave me a great chance to start developing my game further and then that's how I got into tournaments. I first started at around the age of seven, eight. My dad and me were just playing baseball one day and then out of nowhere he said let's start playing cricket. You know I used to play cricket when I was little. So I started playing and then I kept loving
002the game. It was fun. I enjoyed it. And then my mom and my dad were looking for an academy around where I can kind of have more fun while playing and play games and get competitive with it. So we found coach VJ and his academy and then now I play with them and it's really fun. Yeah. And my journey really started when I was three. My dad always putting up um cricket games on the TV and me just watching mostly the ads apparently. But um anyways uh as I grew older and older, my dad put me into like uh cricket camps in India in Bangalore where I uh lived since I until I was eight. And then we moved to the US. Uh we started looking around for cricket um anywhere available near Massachusetts. My
003dad met coach Vajes um our coach at um meeting with like a bunch of like groups of people nearby us. During that conversation he um coach Vajay introduced us to a camp that does cricket here in Massachusetts called BGSC. We joined it. We started doing our own we started learning. We started getting better. was fun until my dad and a couple other people decided to try coaching us oursel or themselves where we further developed and had more fun and built better connections with all our all our friends. Um we built like a strong group of people um that we truly now connected to like a deeper level now than just cricket. And then eventually with a bunch of changes going on with a bunch of new people moving in, coming out, finally met other coaches
004like coach Ragu from Carnonica as well playing at like the state level and um other coaches coming in and finally we've built this organization. Yeah. So Arouch hasn't mentioned this, but he's actually been to nationals a couple of times or just once, right? Uh yeah. So, I've been to the under uh 19 USA National Try out tournament. So, there were multiple levels to get to that um point. This was the final point to getting selected for the USA national U19 national team. However, I unfortunately didn't get selected, but at least that gives me further room for improvement for next year. So, yeah. And he was the only one in this region to to get in it, which is really good. and everyone around him. We're really proud of him. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. So,
005yeah, throughout that whole process of like climbing up the ladder. Um, who or what was your biggest inspiration? Like a player or a coach or something like that? 100% my dad. Um, really this all started because of my dad and the all of like the pushing and like motivation I get is from my dad cuz only or not the only reason I do it but like he's the main figure obviously my father. that I look up to him and everything. And since he's the one who brought me into cricket, um, of course, I'm going to follow whatever he uh asks me to do. And that's mainly it cuz he's put in so much time and effort into this for me. I feel like I have to perform just for him. Yeah, basically. Nice. So, yeah.
006How about you guys? I know both of you have been through a lot as well. Yeah. Um I guess my inspiration I have I mean there's many cricket players internationally who have inspired me but I think my my parents, my mom, my dad both support me a lot while I'm while I'm like playing. They really uh helped me move forward. Without their support, I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing right now. And I think some players like Virat Kohli, Ms. Dhoni, Sachin Tandulkar, those guys have really inspired me with their story and the way that they've come up from where they they started from and now what level and where they are at right now. Mhm. You Yeah. So for me, cricket is very closely related to my family. Um, my dad loves
007the game and he passed it down to me and my brother and he's obviously taught me so much. And I don't know, with him, I kind of feel like he's been trying to teach me that he's teaching me lessons that aren't just related to cricket. He's teaching me a lot about life also. Um, how if you want to become great at something, you're going to have to put in a lot of work to get better. But I can't give him all the credit. Um, my mom and my brother, they also sacrifice so much for me and um, be I don't know how it feels for them to watch me on crick clubs and watching my score tick up or tick down. Eventually I get out, but I know they're always refreshing a crick club crick
008clubs and they're my biggest fans. But also like Arav said, um, players for me it's been Sugman Gil for a long time. Um, AR of knows. I talk a lot about him. Uh, I just feel like I love the way he looks when he bats and he just has so much confidence and obviously he's the number one batsman in the world right now, but I'm not a bandwagon. I've liked him for a long time. Yeah. Um but yeah, another thing for me is I love um obviously it's very not rare but it's you have to work a lot for this to come but I love playing for like the kind of like the dream of scoring 100 or winning something big and so speaking of that India just won the champions trophy. So what did
009you guys think about this performance from them? Uh I thought it was great. I mean all our players played well accordingly. We had multiple performances in each uh levels like we had Kohley hitting 100, Roach Charman in the finals hitting 70, we had Sherman Gil performing. Um we had a bunch of bowlers playing. So yeah, what about you guys? All right, I just have I have one question for you. So I know you open. I'm sorry to interrupt, but so as an opener in watching Rohit Sharma bat, do you like what do you personally think is more important from a team perspective? Do you think it's important for somebody like Rohit Sharma? Like as I said, he played so well in the finals. Do you think it's more important for him to give India like
010a good start up top scoring like 40 or 50 off 20 and 30 balls or do you think it's important to have an opener like Shubman who will take the innings deep? I think both players are really important for for this because Rohit Sharma his like there's roles in a team and every player for a team to win every player needs to make or accomplish their roles and whatever they've been given. So I guess Ro Sharma's role in the team this champions trophy was going out there scoring the big runs in the power play which is the first part of the innings where the field restrictions are on. Exactly. And um I think uh Shman Gil is just there in case of a topple of wickets or something happening he's there to kind of secure.
011He's like the solid rock where everyone rotates around him. That's his role. And I think without him, Roy Sharma would not be able to do what he was doing as well. So I think they both play a really big part in in their in India winning and of course then there's the rest of the batting lineup Kohi Shrea Sire. Um how did you like the way Kohi played in against Pakistan, India versus Pakistan? I mean it's it's not really a surprise. He's obviously I feel like he's built for all the big games. Of course, unfortunately, we didn't see him um make runs in the final, but even in the T20 World Cup, he was he's been out of he hasn't been at his best for a while, but every big game, India can always count
012on him. So, it was no surprise for me to see him make runs against Pakistan. Yeah. And Yeah. I mean, he's the ultimate chaser, right? every time uh every game they call him the best finisher because of this. I mean he always brings the game deep. He doesn't push too hard trying to score runs maybe like Ro Sharma but that's not his role. So he takes the game in deeper and deeper scoring runs keep on taking the scorecard until he has that solid base and then he can um finish with like higher number of runs like fours and sixes later on in the innings when it might be necessary. Yeah. So Arush, as you've played like out of all three of us, you've probably played the highest level of cricket. Um you've been to nationals
013as he said earlier and you've also played high level cricket and MSEL. So from what you've seen, do you think the um do you think like what do you think makes a what do you think makes a winning team? Like what are the qualities that you've seen? A winning team is having really that grit to win at first. If you don't want to win, obviously you're never going to win. If you don't believe you're going to win, no matter when the game's going, you're not going to win. So, you first have to have that belief in you and your team. You got to believe in your team as well that all of you guys can perform to your highest potential to win against any team. No matter who you're playing, even if it's like Indian
014national team, if you don't believe you're going to beat them, for sure you're not going to win. But if you have that determination, one good ball, boom, Kohi's gone. And now you have like the momentum to keep on going. Just like that. The main part is to have that grit to win, but also believing in everyone else um your whole teammates and also having each one of your players have a specific role on your team and making sure they complete that task. And even if one fails, it always happens. Everyone has a bad day. uh there's always people who can um who can really uh protect them as in uh replace them and fill in that role. So basically with this type of team it's like you cannot lose. Yeah. Yeah. I think I think
015um India also had a really good uh team bonding as I said before. I think everyone in the whole team kind of played their played their role and and collectively if you look at maybe some stats if you look at um the like standings of players I think India had players that were on the top of those standings but I think that as um collectively they had they did better because that's what made them win. So exactly just like my point, everyone played their role on the team which is why they went so far and even won the finals. Yeah. And if we're I think if we're talking about India's like success in this tournament, we've only talked about the batter so far, but I don't think we can count the spinners out like I
016thought on those Dubai pitches, obviously it was hard to play spin, but even um disregarding that fact of the pitch conditions and stuff like that, I thought they were bowling really well. And I don't know about you guys, but playing against good spinners that have good line and good length, it's it's hard to like it's hard to do anything with it. You have to create your own options. It's impossible. Actually, I've played against one of the best spinners ever. It was a left arm off spinner and on a pitch where the ball turned about like a solid like foot or two, it was impossible to play cuz his accuracy was like on point. He would he wouldn't miss unless he wanted to purposefully bowl the ball fuller maybe to make you hit. He keep on
017bowling that good length and if you'd step out I mean it was a risk it's spinning a whole foot away from you um easily a stumping opportunity. I think that's the discipline that the Indian bowlers had. So you both of you guys what are your opinions on this then? So obviously playing fast pace bowling that's coming short at your head. Is that type of stuff more scary or is it more scary to come up against a spinner who's making you look like an idiot and you if like you know the ball's turning, you can't pick him. What's more scary as a batsman to you? I think it's all personal. Uh, personally for me, I have issues with playing on the back foot or playing with short balls that come quick at me. Unlike how with
018spin, I actually enjoy playing against the spin. I feel like it's a challenge more than just like reading the ball and using my um muscle memory to like hit the ball. Yeah. The uh playing against spin is more of like a mental game than a physical game. So I just feel like it's just more interactive almost more fun to do so and like like take a step forwards or backwards to confuse a spinner and then score runs off of that. Yeah, I guess what Irish is saying is I exactly think that too. Um I think that against a spinner you have you have to use as you said your mind a lot and cricket is like a lot of coaches say 80% mind game and 20% of the physical game and I think um like
019against a spinner you need to kind of as a batsman go into the spinner's head see what he's going to do or what they're going to do and I think as a and when you're playing B like a short ball that's coming at your head. You could like at max leave the ball by ducking down. But I guess if you're looking at it overall perspective, I would say that spin, as much as it's fun to play it, I think that might be one of the hardest for players. Yeah. So, both of you guys mentioned how um playing against spin bowling, it requires a lot of like mental strength and discipline. So, what do both of you guys do? Obviously, cricket is a sport that requires a lot of physical strength and endurance and stuff, but
020how do you guys train your mental strength and how do you guys build discipline? Um, it's all about just staying calm. Um, thinking only about the game. Don't get distracted by like people outside yelling and screaming there. I know there's a lot of parents sometimes that uh yell from outside about like stepping forwards or like hit the ball even though they're not really uh they're not really aware of what's going on in your head and what's going on in the bowler's head. So, you just have to keep to yourself, focus exactly on that ball at that specific moment and cut off all distractions. And it's just about not being too stressed, not being too nervous, but not being overconfident or anything. You just have to focus on what's going on in front of you instead
021of what's going on like the back of your hat. Yeah, I I agree. I think I think you have to keep yourself calm in situations like that where you're I would say a lot of the wickets that go for as a batsman is because of the lack of uh concentration that is put into playing their playing the ball. And I think being as focused as possible is the like proper or not proper like the way that you should you should be as a as keeping your mind calm and I think yeah and I think um that like keeping your your being I think being calm is the best way to tackle those difficulties. How do you think um India might have felt like as we're talking about um calmness and the mental uh stress that
022goes in India lost in 2023 in the finals and it was I mean for fans and for India it was a big really tough moment because they did really well. How do you think they had to take that mental stress and now use it like get rid of it and now win the champions trophy here? So yeah. So I mean cricket in India it's like it's just built into your life it's like everywhere even if if you play cricket if you watch cricket whatever cricket in India it's always just there. So, losing a big game like that, being undefeated in the group stage, winning all your um semi-final games, and then to lose like that at home, I'm sure it must have been, I mean, it was obviously heartbreaking for all of us, but as
023players, I'm sure they felt really like bad and really sad. But I also think that it's not just a thing about cricket. It's a part of any sport. Whichever you're playing, there's always going to be ups and there's always going to be downs. And I think that's something that India has done really well in the past few years. They've recovered really well from that and winning the T20 World Cup recently. I mean, obviously it's not going to bring that trophy back that we lost, but I think they're doing the best they can to make up for the loss in winter 2023. But yeah, I think recovering from that is hard, but I think as they've represented the country for a long time, they're experts at what they do. Yeah, exactly. I mean another part of
024a winning team is every team has their ups and downs uh act like failures and everything and another part of becoming a good team uh good people is coming back from these downs and bringing yourself back up. That's the real That's probably the hardest part for people when you lose confidence in yourself and bringing up that confidence by believing in yourself and performing again and again to bring up that confidence is a really important part especially in cricket. So you like like you said it's important to kind of like build yourself back up from a failure. So, how do you guys feel about Varun Chakraarti's story about how he's been in the Indian side a few times before, but he got called up for this tournament and he, you know, nobody really knew if he
025was going to play or not, but then when India played him, he performed so well in all of his matches. Yeah, I think he what he did was he just he had opportunities in the patch. um luck wasn't on his side and he wasn't able to kind of make the best opportunity of it but he got an opportunity again which a lot of people don't get and he he used that to his ability took five wickets got in the team semi-finals and finals he was in there and he played a crucial role and I don't think without like without him I don't know if India might have even won he broke crucial partnerships that would have maybe even taken the game away from India Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I mean, um, a lot of these
026players, uh, come and go on the US or, I mean, on the India national team happens all the time. I remember Kale Rahul had a couple bad games and boom, he was dropped off the squad. I mean, uh, there's so much competition in India like I mean almost everybody plays and there's like a billion people in India. So, the competition's so high that even a couple unperformed games can get you off the squad. But every time you have that, if you ever have that opportunity to go back and perform again, you got to really utilize that one opportunity you get to show that you do deserve to be on the team. And I feel like Chakravati did that and Kale Rahul's done that as well. And yeah, cuz I think that's one of the the
027reasons cricket is such a unique sport is be I I feel like it's one of the only sports where it's really hard to get a second chance, especially as a batsman. you come out even if you've prepared for years and years, you face one amazing ball, your off stump is gone and now you know and you feel bad about yourself. So I think the next next day you're out of the team. Yeah. Yeah. So I think cricket is a sport where it's all about making your chances count and all of us have obviously experienced that in zonals and whatever matches we play. So yeah. Yeah. I think on that I think cricket also teaches like great lessons, life lessons. Like I would I wouldn't have learned half of the things I know right now if
028I hadn't played matches and compared to a lot of other people like in my in my grade that don't play cricket. They they really like I really have lot more experience in terms of not just sports in terms of failures handling them life skills. So I think it's really a unique sport. Yeah, I think cricket just like many other sports really do bring or build strong relationships with each other cuz I mean it's one of the biggest team sports. I know you only have two people out there batting at once, but I truly believe like without um good chemistry on a cricket team, without uh following like the leaders and working together, it's impossible to win. And um trick really builds those connections with each other. Um bringing people up when they're low, when they
029have one bad over or when they get out. Um it's all just connections and a lot of you build a lot of people skills while you're playing especially with other teams. Um uh most teams at least in our levels have couple friends that we here and there. So really um playing all these games build these connections with even other people that we might have never met like someone from California might become like our best friend or stuff like that. like I know a lot of people from Miami and Houston and things and speaking of other teams mixing well uh how about we talk about India and Pakistan um I mean obviously it's very complicated relationship between um not just the cricket teams and the fans but also like the countries but I don't know I
030feel like I think that the players just kind of they have to treat it as any other game and they just have to walk in there and you you know, just trust themselves to do what they do best. Uh, and I also feel that I don't know how much they um they really, you know, fire themselves up just because it's an India Pakistan game. I think when you're coming out to represent your country, you always have that same fire. And I think that the it's more of the media and the fans that make India Pakistan such a big deal. But, I mean, to be fair, I feel like it's such a fun game because it's so hyped up. Yeah, it's so hype as you said and it's like the whole the whole vibe around you
031just changes because of um because of the match and I think around us everyone, parents, uh siblings, friends, family, everybody just comes together as one. it sometimes is even treated more than a final would be because it's it's such a huge um game for both sides. But as you said, I don't think the players the players have to kind of play as they're just friends, but they're rivals at the same time. So yeah. Yeah, I agree. I mean, I truly believe that the media's been pushing this probably because of the history that we have had with Pakistan, including all the politics and everything. Um there was a lot of conflict in like the 2000s and like early 2010s where um India and Pakistan had a lot of conflict with like uh a lot of um
032battles like physically even I mean it was the players hated each other but nowadays I feel like everyone's been mellowed down and they're more friendly at least in the field and I don't think that hatred that they used to have is still there. However, the media pushes because that's what just what the media does. I mean, they want all the likes and everything. So, they push for things like um these beefs or these rivalries that barely even exist anymore. Yeah. Have you ever had a rival rivalry with somebody from another team? From another team? I mean, I can't really say cuz I feel like I've just um I've had like good connections with other people and there's been people like uh Wesley Jackson and on the Jam that I can remember who are great cricketers
033and they're amazing and um I've fought with them for like most runs and things like that, but they're truly on different levels. I think that point about connections is such a big part of sports and obviously you you haven't played with me and Ara much because we're in different age groups. But I know we have some pretty in Yeah. interesting memories from hotels um when we go tournaments, going to the pool, remember playing wall ball. Yeah. On the side of the There's a there's a game in the actual game and then there's a game outside of the game. It's like that. Yeah. That's I don't think that's just one like I don't think that's something that makes cricket like unique. I think that's something that I see in all sports and that that's why I
034think it's like really important for everybody to at least try out a sport because you really meet so many new people and often times they become some of your like lifelong and best friends. Exactly. That's why I actually agree with that because the connections you make on the field are great, but it really is outside of the field during those like after the games, after matches, uh when you're just chilling in the pool and stuff like that where you really build those connections. Yeah. So, yeah. So, how do you feel about um how cricket is going to grow in the US? Do you think we'll ever see do you think you think you'll ever play in the Champions Trophy for US one day? Um I mean there's always hope. There's always couple years. It's not
035an easy task especially how USA has been growing further and further and like how we beat Pakistan recently and I mean USA is becoming a big sport here in the U um here and the challenge is just going to get higher and harder and harder and it's not going to be easy. I guess the main goal Yeah. I guess the main goal for for all of us actually is playing on the USA team. And I think and I I think we hope and we want to play for USA and and USA we hope that they're going to get a champions trophy and everyone around try it out who I mean it's a great game and spread their word. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.