New Delhi, February 16: A few summers ago, after 15 years of spilling his sweat and guts for the country, one of India's most famous basketballers ever, Sunil Panda, looked down at his little son and said, ``Don't ever play this game. It's no use. I got nothing after all these years.'' It did not quite sink in then for young Sumit Panda. It did not really matter, either. For, by then, he was already beginning to enjoy whacking a tennis ball around with his cricket bat.Today, poised tensely on the door to an exhilarating future, his father's words begin to make sense. ``He didn't even get an Arjuna Award,'' explains Sumit, after an ``exciting'' tour of South Africa with the India under-19 team. ``In fact, at that age, I did not really understand how big a player my father was. It was only much later, when I started playing cricket and heard people talking about him, that it sunk in.''Now, even as the tall, wide shouldered 18-year-old settles down in his second season with the Bihar Ranji team as itskey paceman, the father's tip has only flared the fire inside.For starters, he has picked up the right kind of dope for his bio-data; a two year stint with the MRF Academy, a smooth action and the seeds of a promising outswinger. The MRF stint, of course, has been the turning point. ``It was there that I got to learn the value of fitness and discipline.'' There is a hopeful smile after taking out four Haryana batsmen at Faridabad on Saturday in his fourth match. But the `slow rock' fan is still not sure about the road ahead. For, he has already seen the other side of big-time cricket while sitting through the junior World Cup without playing a match. ``It was disappointing but I learnt a lot. We had an involved coach in Srikkanth and the team went about the job as a unit,'' he unwinds.He hides the frustration well, but the Loyola student knows that he has had it nice and quick till now on that interesting journey which started with his first trip to the school nets as a batsman.``I wanted to makeit as a batsman, but the coaches wanted me to get the best out of my built by shifting to medium pace.'' That move now has him dreaming of an all-rounder's tag though it is his bowling that pushed him up the age-group ladder into the state side.Books still pull him back. But cricket is a clear winner, as he admits to getting all fired up just watching Allan Donald pounding in on TV. "Now, even my parents have got used to the idea that I may make it big sometime."Now, will another India cap get a place make it to the Panda residence in Jamshedpur? ``That's all I want,'' he confirms. And, probably, a slight change in the next father-son exchange,too.
