A cricketer’s life looks privileged today as they often get subjected to multi-million contracts combined with endorsement and sponsorship deals. However, they had to really slog in order to reach where they are today and one such player is the Indian pacer, Harshal Patel. He recently recalled that in the early stages of his career, he used to work at a Pakistani citizen’s perfume store in the USA.
Harshal Patel also described how he used to find it difficult to speak in England as he had his schooling in a Gujarati-medium school. At the same time, the medium-pacer also said that he only used to get a paltry sum of 35 dollars per day.
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During a recent chat with Gaurav Kapur on his show ‘Breakfast With Champions’, Harshal Patel said, “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 Gujarati medium throughout. That was my first encounter with the language and also with so much slang because that entire area was predominantly Latino and African American. Then I picked up their kind of English. Gangster English.”
The Gujarat cricketer also explained how that phase of life taught him how to get over hardships, especially when it comes to doing blue-collar jobs. Furthermore, he also added how difficult it was to make ends meet with the meager salary that he was being offered.
Recalling the same, Harshal Patel recalled, “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 off and the store would open at 9 am. For two hours I used to sit at the Elizabeth railway station. Do my work till 7.30, 8 pm. So 12-13 hours a day and I used to get paid $35 a day.”
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All those years of hardships and sacrifices seem to have paid rich dividends for Harshal Patel as he has now become an established cricketer in domestic cricket and the IPL. He won the Purple Cap last season with 32 wickets from 15 games and was bought back by the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) for a staggering INR 10.75 crore in the 2022 IPL mega auction.
