The breeze is blowing, and the smell of dirt and manure filled the air in Mumbai, India. A young boy named Rajic sits on the dirt floor in his family’s hut as his brothers fight over the last piece of naan bread. Food was scarce, to say the least, with poverty plaguing the whole community resulting in famine, homelessness, no real schools, and many more third-world problems. Drugs were easier to get than a meal in this village so a large number of people turned to this form of escape to cope with the adversity they faced on a daily basis. This was a tough environment for Rajic but his father understood the importance of hard work and was determined to instill a work ethic and good morals in the boy. One day when the boy was out getting water for his family, he saw a group of young men playing cricket in the village center. Rajic instantly stopped in his steps and thought to himself how fun it looked. He set down his bucket of water and asked one of the men waiting to bat to explain the game to him. The man rolled his eyes and briefly told the boy about the rules and goals of cricket. Raj had a feeling of thrill and excitement inside and wanted more than anything to play the game. He begged to join in but the man was up to bat and told the kid to come back tomorrow with a “willow” or bat midday if he was going to be allowed to play. The boy ran with the bucket of water back to his hut and told his dad all about the game, exclaiming that he needed a bat before tomorrow midday. The father said, “Woah boy, slow down. You know we cannot afford a cricket bat so you must get creative if you want to play so bad.”  His father smiled a toothless smile and continued, “When I was a boy I was the best cricket player on my team.” The father continued to give his eager son all of the advice he could about the sport but restated the obvious obstacle; there is no bat for his son to use. Rajic, initially feeling defeated, let his great desire to play drive him to mentally regroup and go into the nearby forest to find a piece of wood good enough to hit the kookaburra ball which is the name for the practice cricket ball. He searched and searched through the thick brush before he found a thick enough branch that would be perfect to use as a kookaburra that he could swing in the game tomorrow. The problem with this piece of wood, however, was that he wasn’t able to hold it firmly on one end. So Raj went home, with a sense of pride in his accomplishment of finding such a perfect stick and asked his dad if he could carve a handle for it. The father looked at the stick and eagerly jumped to his feet. He went straight to the stack of rusty tools in the corner, knowing which tool he would use to create a handle for his son.  He triumphantly pulled out a wide knife and began to work on creating a handle for this makeshift bat. Raj took an old rag he used as a child and wrapped it around the handle. He had a small dinner with his family constantly glancing over at his bat in the corner, grinning each time.

The next day he went by the cricket field with his janky bat and asked to play, the men hesitantly let him get in the pavilion made of sticks and mud to wait his turn to bat. Towards the top of the batting pavilion, there was a sign with spray-painted letters spelling out, “The Mumbai Strikers.” which had quite a ring to it in Raj’s opinion. He quickly moved on to thinking about how he was going to do on the cricket field whilst vigorously bouncing his knee and biting his lip as it was his turn next to bat. He fumbled through his mind going over the rules again and was trying to remember everything his father had taught him about the game. “New kid you’re up!” directed the bowler (pitcher) in his scratchy voice. The boy ran near the wickets to bat for the first time ever and his legs were shaking with nervousness. “Some bat!” the bowler heckled. Rajic was thrown off even more by this interjection but remembered his dad telling him that before he bats he must take a breath and think only about hitting the kookaburra smoothly and imagine where he wants it to go. Raj took his deep breath in and made it clear he was ready for the bowl. The first ball came and he smacks it flat on his makeshift bat to send the cherry(practice ball) flying out of the oval playing grounds. Amazement came across everyone even Rajic. This swing earned the team six runs and surprised every one because of his natural talent. He forgot what to do next but was quickly prompted to complete his runs while the opposing team retrieved the ball. This swing seemed to be beginner's luck because he was bowled and missed the ball, hitting the wickets behind him, the next few times he went to bat. Raj scored the game-winning run and was asked to come practice with the team after this game. Rajic ran home to tell his parents of his great day of playing still seeming energized when something unforeseeable happens. A homeless man sees him running with his bat and calls him over. Raj went to see what the man wanted despite knowing not to talk to strangers. The impoverished man grabbed Raj, bent him over, and violated him.  Raj made an attempt to scream for help, but the man covered his mouth in a manner as if he had done this act before. One of the cricket players on the team was walking by and heard Raj’s struggle. The player whose name is Ishan rushed around the corner, saw this heinous act, and bashed the homeless man over the head with his pristine bat causing him to fall over and release the boy. Raj thanked Ishan graciously - the man asked if he was ok but Raj just nodded, dazed because he could not believe what had just happened. Rajic walked home with his mind racing trying to calm himself down but just couldn’t stop the feeling of disgust. He wasn’t able to slow his mind down as he usually could. The boy walked straight to his mattress ignoring his parents and curled up into the fetal position. The next morning Rajic couldn’t eat breakfast although there wasn’t much food for him anyway. He thought about the terrible and unspeakable things that had happened to him the previous day but remembered he had cricket practice later in the day. Initially, Raj didn’t want anything to do with the team anymore or have to walk the same road to get to the field but that feeling of when he soared the ball out of the field gave him confidence and he figured it would help take his mind off things. He really was passionate about the sport and wanted to improve despite the events occurring after his first game. So he packed up his bat and warily headed down the road toward the field. There was no sight of the homeless man giving Raj a sigh of relief. As cordial as the boy was he truly hoped this awful person was dead. He kept walking slightly disturbed but started getting his mind on how he was going to play and what he was going to improve on in his first real practice. He pulled up to the playing oval and was ready to start playing to get his mind off things, “Rajic!” a player interjected, “come show me how you hit those 6 runners the other day!” Raj rushed over excited to be a part of this team now but he looked over, saw a small blood stain still on Ishan's bat, and shuttered. The practice went fine and he was glad he could escape his thoughts for a couple of hours. 

Many years had passed since the incident and Rajic had pushed it to the back of his mind, cricket being the only place where he could truly escape all of his thoughts. So he ended up playing as often as he possibly could. Raj quickly became the best cricket player by far in his whole area because of the passion and refuge he found in the sport. The Mumbai Strikers started playing in large matches and made it to the great cricket tournament in India. Almost 50 teams traveled in for this tournament and scouts for the pro leagues came in to see up-and-coming prospects. Rajic, although he had played a great number of matches at this point, was very nervous on this bus ride. Raj was shaking with nervousness and excitement because he knew that there would be professional league scouts at this tournament so he had to play well. The boy was much stronger and bigger than when he first started playing the sport but still faced the same day-to-day struggles in his town. This tournament could be his ticket out if he gets lucky and plays well enough to get recruited to play for any pro team. He had only heard stories of how good the pro players have it. They are the next level of players but what really caught Raj’s eye was the immense amount of money they brought in. Raj couldn’t fathom having as much money as his teammates told him the professionals make in one year. Raj’s Dad worked as a lowly cotton picker, picking between three to four mounds of cotton on average a day which works out to around 300 rupees (US $4.5) a day. The starting cost of rookies in the pro league could change Raj and his family's lives for good. The bus screeched to a halt in Dehli, interrupting the young men's thoughts. The team rushed off the bus and stretched their legs then looked up in pure excitement as they saw the massive amount of other teams. There were three fields nicer than any they had played on before. The team got into one of the fields for practice the day before the tournament and was feeling good. Raj knew he was now by far the best player on his team but remained humble because he hadn’t accomplished anything yet and he didn’t know how good the other players would be on opposing teams. 

The teams arrived at their assigned fields early on the competition day ready to hopefully win their first matches. Rajics team, The Mumbai Strikers, played the second game of the day against one of the highest-ranked teams in all of India called the Bengaluru All-Stars. Rajic almost threw up out of nervousness while warming up his muscles and throwing a kookaburra around with a teammate. He was just trying to get his mind in the right place to perform through these immense nerves. He watched the end of the game before his small village team from Mumbai was called up to do a coin toss. Raj, the captain, went up and shook hands with the respected Bengaluru captain. The Mumbai stickers won the coin toss so Raj chose to bat first because he knows they can control the beginning of the game and start off with some points when batting. Raj had trained harder than anyone for this moment and felt very confident in his ability to score many runs for his team. After the Indian National Anthem was played, the game started off with one of the older players on the team scoring two runs followed by a newer player than Raj. The newer player deflected the game ball into the wicket so he got out but Rajic was up next as the third batsman and knew he could make up for the new player. The Bengaluru bowler threw a medium-paced ball that bounced once, Rajic saw how it bounced and knew he could smash this ball. He hit the ball out of the stadium causing everyone to gasp in disbelief his nerves fueling his extra power. Raj smiled as he ran his six runs but recognized that he would have to continue to make big plays like this all game if they had a chance of winning. His teammates played as well as they could for the most part however they still lost the game. The team was okay with this loss except for Rajic who was fuming after shaking hands with Bengaluru.          Although they lost, a coach for a top 10 Australian league approached Rajic said he liked the way he played and asked him to come practice with his team and possibly get a spot the coming year. The tournament ended and the Mumbai Strikers had a finish of fifth place which was fantastic for this impoverished group of players. Raj recieved a letter with his plane ticket when he got home and was overjoyed with this opportunity cricket had given him. Raj’s family couldn’t fly out with him which was disappointing but he was determined to make the team so he could get his family to come with him in the near future. The plane was a very foreign experience for Raj and he got to sit first class too which was the most luxury he had encountered in his entire life. The plane landed and the coach picked up the giddy young man from the Sydney Airport. Rajic, only just turning 18 was made fun of by a few of the players but just brushed it off as some hazing and really enjoyed most of the team's energy and work ethic. The team showed him their gym and practice field and ran him through a practice where he played the best he had at. The players recognized him as a potential starter on the team and looked forward to maybe having a winning team in the coming years. The practice came to an end and the head coach called Raj into his office. Coach gave the boy a contract to play for the team that if he signed he would get $1,000,000 Australian and a rookie spot on the team. 

Rajic had no words, when he started playing cricket he never thought he would have any kind of success like this. There was a tear of joy in his eye when he hastily signed the document and shook hands with the generous coach. Raj went back home to pack up his family and say goodbye to his hometown because although he had some of his worst memories there, it was the place that gave him the mental tools to grow as a person and athlete. Rajic was more than grateful for his family and the people in his village despite the extremely difficult times he went through. Raj felt pride well up inside him and the feeling that he would always give back some of his wealth either in training new eager athletes in his village or helping out his family monetarily.  It was everything he had dreamt of and worked for since he was a young boy. He felt his dad’s arm around him giving him a squeeze and his brothers each held his hand and knew they would all have a better life in Australia.