5 players who took up cricket against their family's wishes

A career in sport comes with its own set of hurdles and cricket is no exception to this. For some, these hurdles come in the journey towards becoming a professional; however, for a few, they come even before the first step is taken.This happens when the family of the individual, particularly the parents, are not willing to let him or her take up the sport. Cricket has quite a few examples of players who has to face the opposition of their parents, or at least one of them, before finally taking off.Here are 5 cricketers who took up the game against their family’s wishes:

#5 Devraj Patil

Devraj Patil left his home to play cricket

KPL cricketer Devraj Patil has played domestic cricket for Karnataka and also had a brief stint with IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore. Patil, however, had to undergo a lot of opposition from his family before pursuing his career.

His father and the rest of his family were least interested in the game and were unhappy when a friend of their son motivated him to make a move to Bengaluru from his home town. Despite this, Devraj shifted to the city thanks to support from his uncle and ended up earning and IPL contract with RCB.

#4 Bharat Chipli

Chipli won his first IPL contract with Royal Challengers Bangalore

Bharat Chipli is currently playing his cricket at the Karnataka Premier League, but he has played for a number of IPL franchises as well. Chipli wanted to become a cricketer, which is why he took commerce as a stream to give his game more time.

His father, on the other hand, opposed his actions as he wanted the youngster to take up science. But once Chipli became a part of the Karnataka Ranji team and also got a job at a bank in the sports quota, his father was quite satisfied with him being associated with the sport.

#3 Mukhtar Ahmed

Mukhtar Ahmed used to get flogged by his father for playing cricket

Youngster Mukhtar Ahmed is one of the new faces to have featured in the Pakistan T20I side in recent times. His journey from playing cricket on the streets of his village to representing his country has not been an easy one, though.

Mukhtar’s parents were strictly against him playing the game and his father would often thrash him on the grounds for doing so, as revealed by the batsman himself. However, his uncle and teacher argued his case against his parents and convinced them to let him take up cricket.

#2 Habibul Bashar

Bashar did not have his parents’ backing early in his career

Former Bangladesh batsman and skipper, Habibul Bashar, had a pretty long career for his country during which he played 50 Tests and 111 ODIs. However, his parents’ disapproval was the first hurdle that he faced before starting off.

In an interview in 2014, Bashar spoke about how his parents never wanted him to become a cricketer as there was little scope for the game in Bangladesh. But his love for the game was so profound that he took up cricket and luckily for Habibul Bashar, his country obtained their Test status soon after.

#1 Darren Sammy

Sammy’s mother did not approve of his career choice

Former skipper of the West Indies T20 team, Darren Sammy would not have been playing international cricket had he followed his mother’s wishes. Sammy had revealed during an interview back in his early days as a West Indian cricketer that his mother didn’t want him to play cricket.

The reason for her disapproval was her opinion that the sport would take his son nowhere as not a single player from their region, St Lucia, had ever played for the West Indies. Luckily for Sammy though, his father was very supportive and backed his son’s interest by allowing him to go for training.