Education is must in anyone’s life as it makes him or her a better human being and gives them an opportunity to earn their livelihood. However, things become complicated if you are a sportsperson. The athletes of any field have to concentrate on their game which makes tough for them to be well aware of what is going on in the academics. We have seen or heard a lot that players doesn’t like to go for higher studies as their time is consumed on their respective sport. When it comes to cricket, the issues are same but there are cricketers who are well qualified despite making big in the world of cricket. Here is the list of five Indian players of the recent past who are highly educated.
Ravichandran Ashwin
He is the number one spinner of the Indian cricket team who has excelled across formats because of his wicket taking abilities. R Ashwin is the one who has always been among the wickets for his captain. MS Dhoni has always praised him for his performance while he has earned good marks in the note book of Virat Kohli as well. On the back of his impressive performance in the 2010 Indian Premier League, Ashwin was selected in a second-string squad that toured Zimbabwe in May–June 2010 and hasn’t looked back since then. Apart from his bowling, he has been batting well since landing in international cricket. He knows how to score runs and has got an exceptional track record as a batsman in Test cricket. He did his schooling from Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan and St. Bede’s. He attended SSN College of Engineering and graduated with a BTech in Information Technology & worked for Cognizant Technology Solutions. His education qualification shows that he has taken his studies seriously despite playing cricket throughout his life so far.
Javagal Srinath
He was one of the best Indian fast bowlers who was effective till his last game for the country. Javagal Srinath was always among the top bowlers in international cricket and his variation were tough to handle for the batters. The fast bowler was the leader of the Indian bowling for years and won several games for his team. He was a frontline fast bowler for the Indian cricket team until his retirement, being the second Indian pace bowler after Kapil Dev to take 200 Test wickets. He took 44 wickets in the 1992, 1996, 1999 and 2003 editions of Cricket World Cups. He is the joint highest wicket taker for India across World Cups, the other being Zaheer Khan who took same number of wickets in 2003, 2007 and 2011 editions. Srinath was born in Mysuru district, Karnataka. He was attracted towards cricket right from an early age. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Instrumentation Technology from Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering (SJCE), Mysuru. Despite his cricket commitments, he gave importance to his education and went on to achieve good results in the academics.
Anil Kumble
He was recently appointed as the new coach of the Indian team and has been given a year to prove his worth. The former spinner is renowned for his clever cricket brain and it will be interesting to see how he performs in the role of a coach. As a right-arm leg spin bowler he took 619 wickets in Test cricket and remains the third-highest wicket taker—only behind Muttiah Muralitharan and Shane Warne—as of 2016. Unlike his contemporaries, Kumble was not a big turner of the ball, rather relied much on pace and accuracy. His ability to make the ball bounce with subtle variations in pace made him a tough bowler to face for the batsmen. Kumble was selected as the Indian Cricket Cricketer of the Year in 1993 and one of the Wisden Cricketers of the Year three years later. Kumble developed an early interest in cricket as he grew up watching players like B. S. Chandrasekhar. Kumble’s primary school was Holy Saint English School . He completed his pre-university college education from National College Basavanagudi. Kumble graduated B.E from Rashtreeya Vidyalaya College of Engineering (RVCE) in Mechanical Engineering in 1991–92.
Rahul Dravid
He was one of the greatest batsmen in the history of cricket. The former Indian skipper was a treat to watch in his glorious days and he didn’t let bowlers take his wicket easily. The right hand batsman was strong on all sides of the wicket and his batting outside the sub-continent was mind-blowing. It was his batting which led Indian to famous wins against the big teams. Dravid is the fourth-highest run scorer in Test cricket, after Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting and Jacques Kallis, and is only the second Indian cricketer, after Tendulkar to score 10,000 runs both in Tests and in ODIs. Born in a Marathi family and brought up in Bangalore, he started playing cricket at the age of 12 and later represented Karnataka at the under-15, under-17 and under-19 levels. He did his schooling at St. Joseph’s Boys High School, Bangalore and earned a degree in commerce from St. Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bangalore. His mother, Pushpa, was a professor of Architecture at the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE), Bangalore and this was one the reasons why studies were taken seriously at his home.
Murali Vijay
He has become one of the vital members of the current Test squad and is scoring runs in every part of the world. The right hand batsman failed miserably at the start of his career and was even dropped on many occasions. However, after working on his weaknesses and shortcomings, the Chennai bases player is now making his performance count. Apart from the Test team , he has represented India in the shorter formats as well but couldn’t cement his place in the playing XI. Having started playing cricket at the age of 17, Vijay played club cricket in Chennai before he was selected in the Tamil Nadu Under-22 team. He quickly came up the ranks and made his debut for the Tamil Nadu senior team in 2006. He was not good in studies and scored just 40 percent in the XII standard. Murali Vijay left his home after the poor result in order to learn more about the life. The Indian opener was more into travelling and sea life and this what kept him away from the studies. However, he did return back and realize the importance of studies. He then joined the Vivekananda College in Mylapore, Chennai. According to cricket.com.au, he now holds a degree in economics and a masters in philosophy.
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