Mangesh gains Crore strength

From playing with mom in backyard to being bought by RCB for Rs 5.20 cr: All-rounder's tale

- FIROZ MIRZA @ Chennai

LIKE any kid in the country, sixyear-old Mangesh Yadav used to love playing cricket with other boys of his locality.

Mother Rita Yadav, however, was averse to the idea as most of the time the game of cricket used to end with Mangesh being roughed up by fellow players, who apparently were bigger than him both in age and size.

Fed up with frequent quarrels, Rita decided to give company to his son by playing cricket with him at home. Who knew back then that those practice sessions with mother in the backyard of the house at a nondescript Borgaon village of Pandhurna district in Madhya Pradesh would turn out to be a stepping stone for Mangesh's cricketing journey. And the IPL mini auction held in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday could well be said to be a significant milestone in that journey, which has only started.