Varun Chakravarthy: Left Cricket at the age of 17 but Cricket never left me…..

The Beginning

For a player who pursued cricket only till the age of 17 and then stopped playing, it’s nothing but a journey to relish for Varun Chakravarthy. A small-town boy from Tamil Nadu began his journey as a 13yr old wicket-keeper batsman. As a teenager, he did not have much to offer on the plate as a teenager. Many even termed him as an average cricketer and most of his teenage years he faced rejections to make it into the playing XI in age group level cricket.

The Struggle

All that struggle and an average journey meant that 15 yr old Varun quit cricket forever but little did he knew that cricket never gave up on him. Varun started pursuing Architecture studies at SRM University in Chennai. Soon Varun found interest in the sleepless nights preparing for architecture juries, working on chart papers, and attending lectures on design, space, colors & angles. However, the Keeda of cricket never left him and he started bowling in the nets again from the age of 22. Varun was unable able to meet his expenses neither he had a proper kit to begin with or a proper cricket attire. For that, it was important for him to get a job simultaneously.

Varun finally got a job in an architecture company called D+Y. That job took care of his expenses and the company proved quite supportive to allow him to practice and take off days for matches. Varun kept bowling medium pacers in the nets but his love for architecture which includes lines and angles meant he was naturally drifted towards the art of spin bowling. Add to it his injury a few years back made him completely switch to become a spin bowler and that’s when the tables turned around for him.

How tables turned for Varun

Fast-forward to 2017-18, after coming back from injury, Varun signed up with Jubilee Cricket Club. Jubilee CC is the fourth division club of the Chennai League. In that tournament playing for Jubilee CC, he unleashed his potential as a mystery spinner with 31 wkts in mere 7 games at an economy rate of 3.06 with a bowling average of 8.26. That performance of his ensured he got a call up to play in Tamil Nadu Premier League’18. Varun bowled 40 overs in the entire tournament out of which he bowled 125 dot balls in TNPL. Varun on the back of TNPL performance got selected for List A and T20 side of Tamil Nadu where he emerged the highest wicket-taker in Vijay Hazare Trophy 2018-19 with 22 scalps.

Consistent performances meant his name popped up in the IPL contentions. The life-changing moment arrived when Kings XI Punjab bought him for a whopping 8.4 crores in the 2019 season. A whopping 42 times more than his base price of Rs 20 lakhs! Varun in his debut year only got one match to play but it was his experience in the nets which proved to be an enriching experience.

Varun spent time alongside superstar batters and bowlers like Narine, Imran Tahir, and Kuldeep Yadav which helped him improve his game.  Varun has been a revelation for KKR this season with 13 wkts in 10 games including the first fifer of this year’s IPL vs the inform Delhi Capitals. Varun has also been one of the most economical spinners this year in the tournament and he has been over the moon after finding his name in the limited-overs squad for the Australia tour.

The Journey has just begun

Stories like these make you believe that anything is possible if you pursue what you love. All one needs is complete dedication and honesty to what you are pursuing in life. As Sunil Gavaskar said “Varun left cricket at the age of 17 but cricket never left him. The journey has just begun for Varun, even though he is 29 yrs old but that should hardly affect him. Pravin Tambe made his IPL debut at the age of 12 while players like Mike Hussey, Misbah-ul-Haq continued playing till the age of 40.

Varun in an interview with Harsha Bhogle said “I really thank whoever has selected me in the Indian team. It feels surreal, from nowhere, life has changed upside down. Architecture involves angles and lines, spin bowling also is all about angles and lines. Hence, I was always inclined to spin bowling. Even my laptop’s screen background had a cricket ground all the time when I was pursuing architecture. Today being on the field for real is nothing but a dream come true moment for me”