Saurabh Netravalkar, a left-arm seamer took the most wickets for India in the U-19 World Cup 2010. Among his victims was Joe Root. In his first Ranji Trophy appearance for Mumbai against Karnataka three years later, he took three wickets. This happened to be his only first-class match before leaving for USA in 2015 where he is working as a software Engineer. He then became the captain of USA cricket team in 2018.
Now thirty-two and under captaincy of Monank Patel, Netravalkar’s bowling (4-0-18-2), and ice coolness at Super Over played a major role behind USA’s unlikely victory over Pakistan at T20 World Cup 2022. The cricketer spoke with Avijit Ghosh about his rollercoaster career.
Could you talk about your journey from being a young Mumbai cricketer to become a software engineer in San Francisco and also a US cricketer?
Cornell University for an M.Sc. course in computer science. It was like once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and that made me take the plunge.
I came to America with no intention of playing cricket but this all changed when I saw some people playing it on campus. There is something called American College Cricket which I heard about through Lloyd Jodah; he used to organise regional and national tournaments for universities. That’s how I re-started playing cricket again after graduating from college with my software engineering degree from Oracle Corporation. Where I had got employed as an engineer based in San Francisco.
San Francisco was where I met some very good clubs. My current club now is Marin Cricket Club. Later on while having lunch at one famous restaurant know as Dera Indian Restaurant near Oracle Arena. Timil Patel who was then serving as the US vice-captain introduced me to Vijeta CC which was his side in Los Angeles. There are proper pitches in LA. On weekends, there are prize money tournaments where big players come and I get good exposure.
My working hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The office is located about an hour’s drive away from an indoor facility fitted with nets. I go there on weekdays twice or thrice. My practice is usually from seven to nine in the evening. The other two days, I hit the gym. There exists a physical fitness app for all the thirty candidates shortlisted for national team trials.
The fitness coach puts together a timetable for training using this application where we could be at any give time. On weekends, I play club games. Last year, my travel between San Francisco and Los Angeles would take six hours on average.
Every Friday afternoons i use to leave work early along with another teammate so that we could travel to La. Saturday we had a 50 over match in LA and then back to SF thereafter we played another 50 over match in SF on Sunday evening before driving back again at night time. It was only Monday morning and work began again. I worked hard enough for selectors to notice and hence called me up into the national team.
If either Friday or Monday happened to be public holidays, various parts of USA used to host tourneys. The tournaments were invitational which hosted competitive cricketing. I ensured that I took part in these competitions as they offered good exposure. It has been gracious of Oracle Corporation who have aided me by managing both my game as well as my profession
