Tiwary: Meteoric rise

Jamshedpur, Feb. 5: Saurabh Tiwary’s is the classic rags-to-riches story, which incidentally has a long way to go before drawing to a conclusion.

The young cricketer, who was seen riding his rickety scooter in the bylanes of Baridih even a couple of years ago, gifted himself a Honda Accord soon after the maiden IPL was over. Passionate about motorcycles, the southpaw, who celebrated his last teen birthday on December 30, initially replaced the scooter with a motorbike and then the gradual shift to fourth gear with the sedan, currently priced around Rs 18 lakh.

Tiwary, Jharkhand’s second most-popular cricketer after Mahendra Singh Dhoni, is preparing to move to a plush flat at Vijaya Gardens in Baridih, the locality where he spent his childhood at quarters provided by Tata Steel tubes division, employer of his father till recently. Like Dhoni, he also comes from a middle class family. Tiwary’s rise in the cricketing arena not only comes with blazing cover drives based on powerful backlifts, but with meticulous planning in commerce, which too is comparable to only that of Dhoni’s.

“There’s no harm in comparing Tiwary to Dhoni when it comes to success, fame and money. Like the leader of the Men in Blue, Tiwary also comes from a modest background. His career graph is in the upswing,” says Nishant Dayal, the director of Elite Sports Management, which takes care of the southpaw’s portfolio.

According to Dayal, his client earns about a crore annually through match fees and endorsements. “The Kolkata Knight Riders was willing to sign Tiwary for Rs 70 lakh for the second edition of the IPL. But we decided to stick to Mumbai Indians as Tiwary has been promised more matches this season,” he added.

On the 22 yards, if Mahi clicked and made his way into the Indian side after brilliant show during India A’s tour of Zimbabwe, Tiwary made his mark with excellent scores for India under-19 team’s sojourn to South Africa and the World Cup in Kuala Lumpur last year.

With healthy scores — he struck two centuries and as many fifties for Jharkhand in Ranji Trophy this season — Tiwary is looking ahead to make the maximum in the matches to come. “I’m flying to Mumbai tomorrow to play a T20 tourney for former Test seamer Abey Kuruvilla’s team. I’ll straightaway join the state squad for the Ranji one-dayers in Calcutta before trying my luck in Deodhar Trophy. I’ll try to make best use of the opportunity,” he says.

Who knows a few good knocks in the upcoming matches and the IPL, Tiwary may well head to Australia for the India A engagement. Dayal said that Tiwary was already endorsing Reebok and Career Launcher. “UK-based sports equipment company Slazenzer and Titan’s eye gear Fast Track have also shown interest in him. We are sorting the things out,” he added.

But the youngster is not perturbed at the endorsement deals. “What I know is that I have to score runs, huge ones, in the matches. I’m very positive about that. Success and failure are parts of life. I have to continue the good work with the willow,” Tiwary said.