Among the brightest cricketing talents for the Dutch side, the 19-year-old Vikramjit Singh a day before taking guard against the mighty Indian side in the ongoing T20 World Cup regarded this to be the biggest match of his career.
The story of Vikramjit Singh’s affiliation with the Netherlands dates years back before his birth. Amid the rising insurgency in Punjab in the mid-80s, his grandfather Khushi Cheema a resident of Noor Mahal in Jalandhar shifted to the Netherlands along with his family back in 1984.
Vikramjit’s father Harpreet Singh was just 5 when his family made a shift to the Netherlands and now runs a transportation company in Amstelveen. His family was subjected to racism and various hardships during the initial years.
Vikramjit Singh was born in 2003, belonging to a family of die-hard cricket lovers, which helped him in taking up a career in the sport. His family had made a lot of sacrifices to provide a push to his sporting career.
At 11, he was spotted at an Under-12 tournament by the then-Dutch skipper Peter Borren, who spent hours and hours in the nets to groom the youngster.
Years down the line Singh went on to receive sponsorship from Beat All Sports (BAS), a sports goods manufacturer which has made bats for some of the Indian cricketing legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, MS Dhoni, and Harbhajan Singh.
By the age of 15, Singh got a chance to feature in the Netherlands A side and two years later made a debut for the senior team. Although his initial years on the international circuit didn’t go well and struggled to perform big.
The major push in Singh’s career came after he shifted his base to Jalandhar to train at Powerplay Cricket Academy, which belongs to the former Under 19 India player Taruwar Kohli, whom he met while the latter was playing the club cricket there and is known to each other for 4-5 years now.
During an interview, Singh recalled how exhausting was for his mother to help and continuously assist him in his training. Singh’s move to Jalandhar also ensured he stayed close to his grandfather.
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While training at Taruwar Kohli’s academy, Singh was trained under the experienced team and the coaches to tick all the boxes that helped him to perform big in the international arena.
Recalling Singh’s stay at the academy Kohli informed over the phone how his team’s and coaches’ continuous efforts helped Singh in picking the spots where he lacked and continued to prepare and shape his game accordingly.
“The story of Singh’s family has inspired us a lot, his mother made a lot of sacrifices to ensure he receives the best possible training. She used to stay in Chandigarh for months with Vikram where he was training,” says Kohli while narrating the story of Singh’s training days with his academy.
Singh stayed at Kohli’s academy for over 5 months after shifting in October last year. During an interview, Singh recalled his idea of shifting to Jalandhar and said, “One of the reasons was that Taruwar Kohli’s Powerplay Cricket Academy was near my village (Khurd Cheema), and now my mother doesn’t have to worry about me anymore. It was kind of exhausting for her too. Above all, I got to spend more time with my Dadu (grandfather),” who returned from the Netherlands back in 2000 after handing over his transportation company to his son Harpreet.
Besides, being close to his village another major reason for Singh opting to train at the Powerplay Cricket Academy was the availability of the world-class training facility and the experienced coaches at Taruwar Kohli's backed academy, which not just provided Singh gaining momentum for the bigger stage but also enhanced his confidence by playing against local clubs.
Mentioning about Singh playing for the Netherlands and being the first ever Sikh to play for the Dutch side, Kohli marks it as a matter of extreme pride for the entire community.
Singh might not have stood to perform up to the expectations against India in the biggest match of his career at the ongoing T20 world cup but has surely given a reason to cherish and inspire thousands of others who are aspiring to establish a name by taking up a career in the sport.