T20 World Cup | Bengaluru-bred Sanjay Krishnamurthi living the American dream

Bengaluru: The United States cricket team has flown to the sub-continent for the T20 World Cup, and it has brought a few familiar faces with it. And one among those is Sanjay Krishnamurthi. 

After having watched India lift the 2011 ODI World Cup about 15,000 km away in Arizona as a seven-year-old, Sanjay was batting against India in USA's campaign opener, not just in the country but at a stadium where he first dreamt about playing the sport on a television screen: Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. 

“We were in America, and it was April when (MS) Dhoni hit that famous six. It was early morning, and Sanjay was half-sleepy and got all excited. That’s where the story began. And to play against India at Wankhede, I don’t have the words to describe it,” Satya Krishnamurthi, Sanjay's father, tells DH.

Three months later, in July 2011, Satya moved to Bengaluru with his family for personal reasons. And luckily for Sanjay, it opened up new avenues. 

After slowly settling in Sarjapur Road, Satya, wanting to enroll Sanjay in a cricket academy, stepped into J Arun Kumar’s facility. 

“Within the first week of coaching, the coaches told me that Sanjay is generating swing naturally and is quite talented. He was recognised as a good pacer.”

While things were fairly bright for Sanjay, coach Bharat from the JAK academy made an influential shift, advising him to experiment with left-arm spin.

The next thing he knew, he was troubling former Karnataka cricketers K Jeshwant and Vijay Bharadwaj in the nets, bowling spin. Sanjay also won the Anil Kumble Spin Star trials. 

As months passed and Sanjay became serious about the sport, Satya felt it was best to get him into a school which had a solid cricket side. 

While all three of Satya and Julie Krishnamurti’s kids were into cricket, only Sanjay was enrolled at Ebenezer International School, as the fees for all three were unaffordable. 

And that also was not as straightforward. Even for Sanjay, Julie had to work in the school for some concession. However, she says, “It was no sacrifice because that's what we do as a family.”

“When he won the cricket trials (Spin Stars), I wanted to pay more attention to his talent. And we realised we needed a cricketing school. We searched around and found Ebenezer International School. That’s where he played with Smaran R and Rushil Ugarkar,” Satya adds. 

At a time when school cricket was the focus, Sanjay also played for various clubs in Bengaluru. While the performances were not the concern, Satya found the club cricket days “very messy” for several reasons. 

When Sanjay wasn't able to break into the Karnataka age group teams (U-14/U-16), a collaborative decision to focus on batting was talked about. He worked with a specialist batting coach from Andhra Pradesh, and the batting seeds that were sown, blossomed into runs. He was also KSCA’s best batter and went on to play for Karnataka.

Later on, Sanjay worked with Jeshwant at the Six Academy, where his most “influential and life-changing” shift came: a change in batting approach from defensive to aggressive. A role he is currently flourishing with USA.  

“The US cricket team was looking for US passport holders. They invited a few players to Mumbai. We travelled to America in March 2020. He featured in the Minor League Cricket and won the Most Valuable Player award. And those performances earned him a national call-up. 

In 2021, Sanjay made his USA debut against Nepal in Al Amerat. While the journey has had its fair share of ups and downs, Satya, more than anyone, knows his kid is living the American dream.