Tanmay Mishra: A cricketer’s journey from World Cups to the maidans of Mumbai

Amidst the chaos that pervades Kenyan cricket, Tanmay Mishra has been the shining light. Currently Mishra is in Mumbai honing playing Division One cricket — which a challenging prospect according to him. Mishra says he is improving every single day and hopes he is able to share his experiences with Kenya and help them prosper. Cricket correspondent Sarang Bhalerao caught up with Mishra.

Tanmay Mishra. (Photo courtesy Sarang Bhalerao)

Amidst the chaos that pervades Kenyan cricket, Tanmay Mishra has been the shining light. Currently Mishra is in Mumbai honing playing Division One cricket — which a challenging prospect according to him. Mishra says he is improving every single day and hopes he is able to share his experiences with Kenya and help them prosper. Cricket correspondent Sarang Bhalerao caught up with Mishra.

Talk of Mumbai cricket and there will be interesting stories and anecdotes that will grip you, ensure that you sit up and take note of it. The club rivalries, the unrelenting passion and the cut-throat competition at the club level are perfect ingredients in the making of a cricketer. Talk of Mumbai’s Kanga League and the conditions totally test every sinew of your cranium and body especially for batsmen. With so much opportunities and challenges on offer this Mumbai-born Kenyan international cricketer, the 26-year-old Tanmay Mishra has preferred honing his skills at the maidans of Mumbai, playing the Division One cricket, than represent Kenya at the international level.

Mishra has been the batting lynchpin of Kenya. In the 2011 World Cup, he was the best batsman of Kenya by a proverbial mile, scoring two half centuries against Canada and defending champions Australia. The 72 against the latter showed glimpses of his batting potential. The striking feature of his batting was the balance and the footwork especially against spinners. When asked about the ease with which he played the spinners Mishra says, “The credit goes to Jonty Rhodes who worked with me on playing spinners.”

Mishra tells that he practiced with the spin bowling machine which is present in Dubai. “The turn and the bounce are exaggerated. It was a real test of my technique but in the end those hard yards helped me prosper in the World Cup. I thank Jonty for the effort he put in my batting.”

Remembering his knock of 72 against Australia at Bangalore, Mishra feels he missed out on a hundred. “I was run out as Collins Obuya called me for a risky single. Not for the first time (laughs). I was devastated. It is not often that people watch us play. For me, that was a missed opportunity of getting a century against an established Aussie attack. Hopefully someday I will be able to score a ton against them,” says Mishra.

In 2004 Mishra, during his formative years, learnt the nuances of batting from former Pakistan opener Mudassar Nazar. The technical aspect of the game was worked upon. Mishra scored heavily in the club games and he rose into prominence during that period in Kenya. “I owe a lot to him,” says Mishra talking about Mudassar. “He would often tell me the importance of staying on the wicket. I had the problem of getting out in the 60s. He worked on that aspect and worked hard on my game,” recalls Mishra.

Roger Harper was the national coach when Mishra was on the fringes of national selection in 2006. Harper conducted a game between the Kenyan senior team and the junior counterparts in order to look at the bench strength of the nation. When he saw Mishra’s batting, he was impressed with the young man.

Mishra made his debut against Zimbabwe in February 2006. He remembers his debut game very well and says: “I was unbeaten on five and standing at the non-striker’s end. One of Thomas’s [Odoyo] straight drives hit bowler Piet Rinke’s hand and I was out run-out.” In the next game Mishra scored 46 off 53 balls and since then he has never looked back. Kenya won the World Cricket League in 2007, just prior to the World Cup which was a pivotal moment and this triumph was seen as a solid step towards resurrection of Kenyan cricket.

If one looks at Mishra’s tryst with Kenyan colours, his record has been impressive. In 42 One-Day Internationals (ODI), he has scored 1,128 at an average of 34.18 with eight half-centuries and 11 scores between 31 and 49. So what is his story? Why has he been left out of the squad due to disciplinary reason? As a matter of fact, Mishra had given up playing cricket after being part of two World Cups in 2007: T20 tournament in South Africa and the 50-over competition in the Caribbean. After being part of the two World Cups, Mishra joined an Indian University to complete his studies. “My father asked me to finish my studies first. He said you have played two World Cups and the family is proud of you,” reminisces Mishra. One wondered if the cricketing world had the batsman for the last time, who was only 21 when he took the decision to take a break from international cricket.

After finishing his studies, Mishra started playing cricket again and wanted to be part of the 2011 World Cup side. The Kenyan cricket board asked him for a full-time commitment stating that he just cannot pick and choose the tournaments. “I asked them is the Kenyan cricket board ready to take the responsibility of me post-retirement? I had to have a back-up option. So you have to understand my decision to go for higher studies. Nairobi is one of the most expensive cities in the world. It is not easy to be a professional cricketer in Kenya,” says Mishra.

After his success in the 2011 World Cup, Mishra did get a lot of offers from the clubs in Australia and the Netherlands. He however chose to come to Mumbai. “The cricket here is challenging,” he says. “The conditions are tough, the bowling is tight and scoring runs is in these conditions gives me immense satisfaction.”

Remembering his days with the Air India squad, he says: “When I was part of Air India squad, I didn’t make it to the playing XI since we had Robin Uthappa, Sushant Marathe, Prashant Naik who had scored heavily at the club level. I was an international cricketer, but I realised that I had to work hard on the game.”

Mishra says the spinners at the top-level clubs are very difficult to face. “They are dead accurate and bowl relentless line and length over after over. While playing against the associate nations it is easy to manoeuvre the spinners and put them off. But over here, it is very difficult,” says Mishra. He is currently playing Kanga League for Parkophene Cricketers and says his game is developing.

Mishra was part Deccan Chargers setup in 2012. So how did he get the contract? Mishra says: “The Kenyan side were playing a few games in Vishakhapatnam. I scored a century and two fifties in three games and then I was signed by the Deccan franchise.” Mishra says he learnt a lot rubbing shoulders with the international stars in the team. He played the tournament as an Indian since he had an Indian passport. He didn’t get a contract in 2013 as he had not played enough First-Class cricket.

Mishra moved to Kenya permanently in 1994. Cricket came naturally to him. He played the game just for fun, but was really good at it. He was the vice-captain of the Under-15 team and captained the Under-17 side. Says Mishra: “I was doing reasonably well as a cricketer but I enjoyed playing the game of football which was my first love.”

So what happened to the first love? “One day I hurt my knee and then that was when I stopped playing football and started playing cricket.” In April 2013, Mishra was part of Virat Kohli-led football team that locked horns with the Bollywood stars in an exhibition game in Delhi. “I scored a goal in that game,” recalls Mishra.

But who noticed his football talent? “Rohit Sharma,” he says. In 2007 Rohit was part of the India A team that toured Kenya. “I showed them (India A team) the city and that’s when I first met Rohit,” says Mishra.

Mishra religiously supports Manchester United. Look at his Twitter profile if you may and you will see he has strong opinions. “I think Davis Moyes is not in the same league as that of Sir Alex Ferguson. Moyes gets nervous when we (referring to Manchester United) are a goal down,” says Mishra. He explains the formation and the role of each player in the side.

Ask him about his role model and he says it is Sachin Tendulkar. As a child Mishra was in awe of his on-the-up shot and the straight drive. As a youngster Mishra would want to bat like Tendulkar. “Even today he practices for hours together perfecting his shots,” says Mishra.

There is euphoria about his role model’s 200th Test. Has he found the ticket to the gala event? “I am trying for it, hopefully will get to see Tendulkar play his final Test.”

When asked about his goals, Mishra says: “My immediate goal is to help my side Parkhophere Cricketers win the games.” He also wants to help the cricketers in Kenya with his cricketing knowledge gained by playing in the tough conditions. Mishra believes that a Kenyan batsman is sometimes thrown in the international cricket after scoring just a couple of hundreds in the club games. “The transition,” Mishra says “is huge and some of the batsmen are not ready.” But Kenya has very little to choose from.

(Sarang Bhalerao hails from a family of doctors, but did his engineering. He then dumped a career in IT with Infosys to follow his heart and passion and became a writer with CricketCountry. A voracious reader, Sarang aspires to beat Google with his knowledge of the game! You can follow him on Twitter here)