The glamorous lifestyles of the current generation of Indian cricketers are vastly overshadowed by their underprivileged past. Not all of them hail from wealthy backgrounds. The struggle that they endure to reach the top summit is often overlooked. The same goes for the former Indian cricket-turned-politician Major Tiwari who has featured in 12 ODIs and three T20Is for India.
The cricketer was fortunate to share his dressing room space with the legendary Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni and could have gone on to represent India in more games had luck been on his side.
Tiwari opens up on his struggles during his formative years
In a recent interview, the former Bengal skipper revealed how the thought of retirement crossed his mind multiple times after being sidelined from the Indian squad. But he chose not to go that route due to family responsibilities and continued playing.
"Due to responsibility, I did not take early retirement. Those were difficult times. One thing I always had in mind was that I had to pay off the loan. We have Mangla Haat In Kolkata, there I used to sell poori sabzi. My mom used to make the pooris. Sometimes people did not even pay for the food that they ate."
The thought of paying off the loan continued to concern the former cricketer. Tiwari also stated that he had to resort to selling poori sabzi (popular Indian food) in Kolkata during his teenage days and admitted that some would not even pay for the food they ate.
Tiwari continued to toil hard further. At age 14, he began his work in the nuts and bolts factory where he was worked to the teeth with very little play but cricket kept him on track as he would receive a decent sum every match while playing at the U-16 level.
"I worked in factories of nut and bolts. This was around when I was around 14 years old. I got Rs 1200 per match when I played in U-16 level. So I did the maths and made sure I did well in cricket so that the money always comes. I ran away from the factory. It was too hectic. The factory owner used to make us work."
A look at Manoj Tiwari’s international career
Manoj made his international debut for team India in the ODI format in 2008 against Australia. But he waited three years to register his maiden ODI century (104*) against West Indies in Chennai. After that knock, Tiwari was dropped under the leadership of then-Indian skipper MS Dhoni.
In addition, the Kolkata-born batter has a remarkable record in the IPL. Representing four IPL teams most notably the KKR, the 39-year-old recorded 1695 runs at an average of 28.75 which included his best score of 79* from the 2009-10 IPL season.
