ONLY a few short years ago, Surendra Prajapat had never played a game of organised cricket. Last week, he played five games in four days.
Now the 16-year-old Mildura East lives and breathes the game and is one of the rising stars of the Sunraysia Cricket Association.
Relocating to Mildura from Rajasthan, India in 2017 with his family, Prajapat begin learning his craft with a tennis ball at Aero Ovals before eventually joining the ranks of East in 2019 as a 13-year-old.
Just over a year later, the young gun made his First Division debut at age 14 and now has 19 games in the top grade under his belt, many as an opening or first change bowler.
Most of Prajapat’s days are filled with cricket, whether it’s playing, team training or spending time at the nets alongside his father and brother honing his skills.
“This year we’re here maybe three or four times a week, but in 2018 and 2019 we came down here almost every day,” the Chaffey Secondary College student said.
“When I’m at home I don’t like to sit still, I want to do something so the best thing is to come down to the nets and train. I could play 24 hours of the day.”
It was an eye-opening experience for Prajapat moving to Sunraysia from an Indian state with a population of about 70 million people.
“(It was) very different, it took a bit of time to settle in but we got used to it after a while,” he said.
“We didn’t play any cricket then but after a year we started playing tennis cricket at Aerodrome Ovals with tennis balls. Then we came down here, we saw a few of the boys training and we signed with Mildura East and have played here for the last three years.
“I used to watch cricket but didn’t know a lot about it but started here when training with the boys. Never actually played a competition in India but here started playing for Mildura East.
“It’s a good club, very inclusive and we all get together quite well.”
Prajapat is the first to admit he still has many aspects of his game to work on, but what can’t be questioned is his enthusiasm and work rate.
Just last week the young gun, who captains East’s Under 16 side in the mornings before playing Firsts in the afternoon, played five games in just four days.
There was a senior Twenty20 game on Thursday, an Under 16 T20 on Friday, the usual two Saturday contests, and then on Sunday, he represented Mallee Murray Suns in the Cricket Victoria Youth Premier League.
“It’s a bit tiring at times,” he said.
“I’m improving as I go along but there’s a lot of things I can work on. I don’t always have the best days and some days I get slapped, but on other days I do alright. It’s really all about giving 100 per cent every time I play and see what happens.
“I just try to hit the wickets, try to be consistent. I want to go as far as I can. I just train hard, I train every day.”
