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Journalism of Courage
From selling perfumes at a store owned by a Pakistani in New Jersey to being picked up for Rs 10.75 crore by Royal Challengers Bangalore at the 2022 auction, fast bowler Harshal Patel talks about the upward trajectory of his career and also setbacks on the show Breakfast with Champions hosted by Gaurav Kapoor.
The Gujarat-born speedster was picked up by Delhi Capitals for his base price of Rs 20 lakhs in 2018 and was later traded to RCB in 2020. Patel made an impact when he picked up 32 wickets in 15 appearances for RCB and helped the team to seal the playoffs spot in IPL 2021. But he had found the going tough, including when he was sent home in the middle of an IPL season.
“I used to work at this Pakistani guy’s perfume store in Elizabeth, New Jersey. I couldn’t speak a word of English because I had studied in a Gujarati medium throughout. That was my first encounter with the language and also with the language with so much slang because that entire area was predominantly Latino and African American. Then I picked up their kind of English. Gangster English. They used to come and buy $100 perfume bottles on Fridays. On Monday they used to come back and used to say, ‘hey man I just sprayed it a couple of times. I want to return it man. I have no food on the table’. That was a regular occurrence. It was a great experience for me because I learned what those blue collar jobs really are. My aunt and uncle used to go to their offices, and they would drop me on the way. So at 7 am I would be dropped and the store would open at 9 am. Two hours I used to sit at the Elizabeth railway station. Do my work till 7.30, 8. So 12-13 hours a day and I used to get paid $35 a day.”
He played junior cricket and he was faster than most kids. Realising he was talented, his parents let him stay back in Gujarat.
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“I used to play junior cricket. I was a little too quick for my age. Unfortunately that pace stopped at that level. And they (parents) put all that faith in me. And when my parents left they told me one thing ‘don’t do something which puts us in a bad situation’. I took it to heart. I used to go to Motera to practice from 7 am till about 10 am. There was a sandwich shop, I would eat sandwiches and return. Aloo-mutter (potato and peas) sandwich, vegetable sandwich. Not toasted. Because toasted (bread) was expensive. Aloo-mutter and vegetables used to be Rs 7, toasted was Rs 15.”
One of his biggest setbacks was during the 2018 auction when he was bought at the base price by Delhi though ‘3 to 4’ people from different teams had told him they would bid.
“It is not about the money I just wanted to play. This was the 2018 auction. The ironic thing was, there were at least three or four people from different franchises who said we are going to bid for you. But nobody did. I felt like it was a betrayal. I was in a spiral of these dark thoughts. You’ve given so much to this game and you’ve worked so hard and this and that and all these things that you tell yourself… the image that you have built of yourself. You keep telling yourself that you know, ‘you’ve done all this, you’re not getting anything out of it’. It’s very important to acknowledge what you’re feeling and not dismiss it. Because if you’re feeling something then that means it’s legitimate.”
It was a chat with his brother during this phase that resulted in Harshal changing his mindset and goals and becoming the skilled bowler he is today.
“My brother told me, the auction is a market place and you are offering your services and people and bidding for those services. You have the option to either upgrade yourself or you continue to be in this position where people are not looking to buy your services. And that I took very seriously. It was about the value that was attached to that price tag. Right now I don’t think I am the kind of person who needs 10.75 crores in his life. I don’t have such high desires. What is satisfying is the value that tag has. That is a decision I made after the 2018 auction, that I want to be a valuable player, when those 11 names are being written down I should be the automatic entry. And that drove all my decisions, my decision to take more risks in the game, my decision to be more expressive on the field with my skills. I still can’t believe I took 32 wickets in the IPL in 15 games.”
This year though, fortunes changed for Harshal. From a base price of Rs 20 lakh he was bought for Rs 10.75 crore by RCB.
“I was in the room (2022 Auction time) and I got a message from Virat Kohli, ‘Congrats on winning the lottery’. I said ‘yeah bro, won the lottery. Way beyond my expectations. And he said ‘Yeah, very well deserved’. You’ve given the prime of your life to something, and then it bears fruit after so many ups and downs, that is the most gratifying thing for me,” Patel added.
Talking about what money means to him, Harshal said it was only the means to reach his main goal in life, which is freedom.
“Money is great but for me the central goal of my life is freedom. I want freedom and money is a tool that can get you to that place.”
Get latest updates on IPL 2025 from IPL Points Table to Teams, Schedule, Most Runs and Most Wickets along with live cricket score updates for all matches. Also get Sports news and more cricket updates.
