India and CSK star batter Robin Uthappa is one of the finest players around. He has been a part of many of India and CSK’s memorable moments on-field including the iconic 2007 T20 World Cup win of team India.
Robin Uthappa has opened up about his first cricketing memory and has also revealed his decision to switch his career from hockey to cricket.
Robin Uthappa On Why He Chose Cricket
For the unversed, Uthappa comes from a family of hockey players. Uthappa’s father was an international umpire in the sport and the same has helped him break into the state hockey side. However, he realized quite early that if he chose hockey his journey will be was going to be very easy, therefore, he switched to cricket to do something of his own.
Recalling his decision, Uthappa in a conversation with Sharechat’s online show CricChat, revealed: “My father was an internationally renowned hockey umpire who also represented Karnataka. Once, when I went for the U16 sub-junior selection, I realized the path is going to be very smooth because everyone loved my father. In fact, during the selection day, there were very talented people who had come there, however they did not get selected.”
He added: “I felt really bad that day that these players were not selected even though they were better than me. I used to play as a full-back and I was selected as a stand-by, but I felt that these players were so talented, however, they did not get selected. That’s when I realised my journey will be easy,”
Uthappa revealed his first cricketing memory
Further, Robin Uthappa said that even if he succeeded in the sport, people would have believed that the success came because of his father not his own talent. He said:
“So I went back to cricket, expecting to become successful through my hard work since my father had no connection with cricket,”
Uthappa signed off by recalling his first cricketing memory, “There are quite a few reasons for the choice made. One of them was when I was two or three years old and I was playing cricket with my mom, she was throwing the ball and I was hitting it with a broken plastic bat. That was my first consciousness of the game that brought me alive as a person.”
