1) Unmukt Chand :- Now part of Major League Cricket, a T20 cricket league in United States and Big Bash League, Unmukt Chand also hoped to represent India in blue, but such is the competition in Indian Cricket ecosystem with competition getting harder for a pure batsman, Unmukt Chand finally took the strategic decision to leave India for good at the 26 and decided to try his luck in USA.
Born to a Kumauni Rajput family from Pithhoragrah, Unmukt represented India in domestic cricket while still in school, at the age of 16.
He made a century against Australia in U19 World Cup final, but after that numbers didn’t rise that high as he would have wanted.
With lesser returns in domestic cricket and a high score of 58 in 21 innings spread across 6 seasons from 2011-2016 for 3 different franchises at a total price of 2.25 crores and a book named “Sky is the limit” published in 2013, Unmukt had sudden slide in his career when he was dropped from his home state team, Delhi.
He decided to go to USA for good and so far he certainly seeing more dividends than what he would have had if he had stayed back in India. Sometimes jumping to the other pond might not be a bad thing to do.
With speculations coming that he might captain USA at the T20 World Cup in June, it will be a weird moment for Indian fans to see their home boy up against them only, but if that happens Cricketers in India can take Unmukt Chand example as a silver lining to find alternate ways to rebuild their Cricket career even if it comes at the cost of leaving the home country.
2) Smith Patel :- The non-striker at other hand when Unmukt Chand scored that century against Australia in u19 World Cup final was early to land in USA than Chand in pursue of finding better cricket opportunities.
Smith also played an unbeaten innings of 62 runs in u19 World Cup final against Australia.
He played for Gujarat for considerable time in India before finally retiring in 2021 to play in USA.
3) Timil Kaushik Patel :- Another player from Gujarat who left India at the age of 27 for a career in USA cricket.
Timil Patel now aged 40, played for India U-19 team and Gujarat in domestic cricket, he even toured Australia from KKR camp to play some matches in Australia for KKR, but didn’t make to the final KKR draft for IPL 2009.
He progressed through USA domestic system and went on to represent USA in 7 ODIs and T20s.
He was a leg spinner.
4)Siddharth Trivedi :- Highest wicket taker for Rajasthan Royals in the 2008 IPL season, Siddharth Trivedi had some success in his home country India.
Being part of Rajasthan Royals squad for 6 consecutive years from 2008 to 2013, earning 1.26 crores in total through IPL contracts, Trivedi had to suffer a one year ban in 2013.
He was not involved in any kind of fixing, but he failed to report an incident of a bookie approach.
He moved to USA in 2021 and shuffled through the role of coach and professional crickter.
He is now back in India and coaching Manipur U23 team.
5)Saurabh Netravalkar :- A career of 8 years and on going in Oracle in California, United States, Saurabh Naresh Netravalkar last played, not for the last time for USA in October 2023 against UAE in World Cup Qualifiers.
Saurabh played for India U-19 team and also made it to the Mumbai Ranji team, but the opportunities were less.
After completing his engineering from Sardar Patel College of Engineering, Mumbai, Saurabh took no time to take the flight to USA.
He started his cricket career along with his MS from Cornell University.
He has even captained USA for some tournaments and it will be interesting to see, if he can make up for USA team for World Cup T20 in June and get to play against his home country India. If it happens, it will be mixed bag feelings for the tall height left arm pacer.
