Yuvraj Sharma is an upcoming cricketer of Indian origin who is part of the Under 17 New South Wales cricket team. Yuvraj is an opening batsman and dreams to play for the Australian Cricket team. He is also keen to play in the IPL (Indian Premier League) as well as the Big Bash League in Australia.
Yuvraj told SBS Hindi "I have been playing cricket ever since I started walking. In cricket, there is more failure than success so you have to struggle a lot, you have to cut your social life, you have to sacrifice a lot, but the hard work you do is always useful and in the end, you enjoy your hard work and success".
Only two cricketers of South Asian origin have made it to the men's national cricket team in Australia.
Source: Ritesh Sharma
Source: Ritesh Sharma
"It will be difficult to make it to the national team as Australia is a big nation and a lot of people play cricket," Yuvraj Sharma says.
"But with hard work...and you need a bit of luck as well. Players like Gurinder Sandhu and Usman Khawaja who are playing it's a big achievement and very inspirational for us, but we are also seeing more and more Indian players who are coming in the limelight and I think everyone has their own journey. Race does not matter but yes when you work hard in the end that is useful."
Yuvraj's parents Ritesh and Jaya Sharma both support their son.
Source: Ritesh Sharma
Mr Sharma says that he has always supported Yuvraj's passion in spite of the pressures. "There are lots of ups and downs in sports", he says "when you talk about sports you are targetting for the top 10-15 people in the country so the pressure and the effort required is also in accordance to that."
"From the moment he started to stand the first thing he did was hold a bat," Yuvraj's mother Jaya Sharma tells SBS Hindi.
Source: Ritesh Sharma
"He has been playing since he was very small with a bat and ball but that is quite common in India and a lot of kids play cricket. But as he grew older this became his passion, that he really wanted to play cricket. Slowly we realised that he also has good ability. His father was also quite a good cricket player in his time, so he taught him quite a lot, so the family atmosphere was also there."
Jaya Sharma tells SBS Hindi that they have always supported Yuvraj to work hard, honestly play his game and pursue his dream.
Source: Ritesh Shamra
Yuvarj Sharma came to Australia when he was nine years old but speaks fluent Hindi. He told SBS Hindi that his favourite cricketers are Indian batsmen Rohit Sharma and South African batsmen AB Devillers as they bat really well and he would want to become like them. At just 16-years-old Yuvraj Sharma is the youngest player in the current NSW U17 team, and besides being an opener for his team he is also a part-time leg-spinner.
Source: Ritesh Sharma
Source: Ritesh Sharma
