Behind Shardul Thakur’s success, a little known hero — wife of coach (Profile)

By Aakash Kumar Brisbane, Jan 19 : Behind the rise of India medium pacer Shardul Thakur is an unknown hero that has perhaps never been given due credit — wife of his childhood coach Dinesh Lad. How? It was she who gave permission to her husband to let Thakur stay at their two BHK flat in Borivali, Mumbai, despite having a daughter of almost the same age.
It was a tough decision for the Lad family, but it must have been easy for the well-known Mumbai coach to spot the latent talent that Thakur possessed. At the time, Thakur lived in Palghar — over 86km from Borivali — and Lad did not want the precious talent to go astray.
“I saw him playing in 2006 in Mumbai against our school team, Swami Vivekanand International School. Playing for Tarapur Vidya Mandir, Shardul scored 78 runs and also picked five wickets. Impressed by his performance, I asked him to join my school. I asked him to tell his parents to contact him. I told his father that Shardul had a lot of talent and could play top level cricket,” Lad told IANS from Mumbai on Tuesday, after India defeated Australia in the fourth and final Test in Brisbane and won the series 2-1.
“However, his father declined, saying Shardul had [class X] board exams and also the journey from Palghar to Mumbai was more than two-and-a-half hours, which was very difficult. Then I talked to my wife and asked her if we could keep a boy at our home so that he can play here in Mumbai. My wife agreed and we bought him home,” he disclosed.
Lad admitted said that initially he and his wife were a little bit hesitant as they had a daughter of almost the age of Shardul and there was a ‘risk factor’ bringing an unknown person to stay at home “Ours was a two BHK flat in Borivali. Initially, we were reluctant as we too had a daughter who was Shardul’s age, or maybe a year older. There was a risk factor. But we made him stay at our home and it paid dividends. We didn’t take any money from him. I got him admitted in my school, and Shardul stayed with us for a year,” Lad, who coached him and Rohit Sharma at his school, informed.