Uttarakhand’s Kamlesh Nagarkoti, who is known for his superb fielding and sharp fast bowling, made headlines for his fantastic performance in the ongoing ICC U19 World Cup 2018 in New Zealand.
18-year-old Nagarkoti, who is capable of topping 145 KPH, once again grabbed eyeballs when he was picked up by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) for a whopping Rs 3.2 crore in the recently concluded IPL Auction for the 11th edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in 2018. With the deal, Rajasthan born Nagarkoti becomes the most expensive junior cricketer in the IPL Auction 2018.
The 18-year-old wiry right-arm pacer, who has taken seven wickets in the World Cup so far, has been the most talked about player in New Zealand since the tournament has started.
According to a report in The Indian Express, the secret behind the success of Nagarkoti is that his coach Surendra Singh Rathore has promised him to buy an iPhone, if he got selected in the U-19 for the Indian cricket team.
Since then, Nagarkoti has passed every test given by his coach, finding a place in the U19 national Team, doing well in the junior Challenger Trophy, selection in the Rajasthan senior team for the Vijay Hazare Trophy, and now even playing in the U19 World Cup, but he is yet to receive the iPhone.
But the conditions of his coach have not come to an end and it seems that Rathore wants to see him achieve new heights of success.
Though, now he can be buy hundreds of iPhones and even he can gift one to his long-standing mentor with his latest multi crore deal with KKR.
He said, “Whenever I would take my phone out, my teammates would taunt me saying ‘bhai phone toh change kar le yaar..Do saal ho gaye, yeh hi dekh raha hoon.. Ab kitni gareebi dikhayega…Itna toh nahi hai…..arey iPhone 10 with 256 GB costs 1 lakh 2 thousand”
Meanwhile, Nagarkoti shared his emotion to ESPNcricinfo when IPL Auction was going on in Bengaluru, “Andar se thoda nervous tha mai (I was a little nervous from within). My friends kept calling non-stop, but I didn’t pick up the phone. I didn’t watch my bidding. When my room partner Pankaj Yadav turned on the live stream, I couldn’t take it. I said ‘yaar, main jaa raha hoon (mate, I’m off). I went and sat inside the washroom even as my bidding kept going on.”
Nagarkoti's father is a retired honorary lieutenant, who earns Rs 33,000 as his monthly pension, and he was earlier in Army School; but Rathore pulled Nagarkoti out of the Army School because there was no cricket and brought him to Sanskar Academy, and even convinced the principal to reduce the school fee as his family couldn’t afford it.
