Jason Sangha a man apart in Australian cricket’s rebuilding process
Jason Sangha has always stood out.
An Australian of Indian heritage, who was "the only brown person at school" or in his cricket team, a Sikh and a sportsman who has always been precociously gifted beyond his years.
Key points:
- Jason Sangha is regarded as one of Australia's brightest prospects in men's cricket
- He has already scored two first-class centuries at age 19
- He captained Australia at the under 19 World Cup earlier this year
Pinch yourself. He is only 19.
Already he has achieved so much and experienced so many highs and lows. He has a worldliness beyond his years. But that is belied by a youthful exuberance.
His favourite athlete is LeBron James and it is hard for him to get through a sentence without a stray "like" as a form of punctuation.
His Sheffield Shield century for New South Wales against Tasmania at the SCG last week was his second in just five first-class matches, prompting a call from Kerry O'Keeffe to fast-track him into the Australian Test team.
"Jason Sangha. If he was a thoroughbred, his breeding would be Joe Root out of Virat Kohli," O'Keeffe told Fox Sports.
Sangha's story begins when his mother Sylvia flew from Murwillimbah in northern New South Wales to her homeland of Punjab in northern India to meet her new husband, Kuldip.
"He was the national champion for running at that time, so his name got around a fair bit, so a pretty easy choice for mum I think," Sangha said.
"With mum's loving side and her willingness to always help and dad's very calm, very sophisticated, very professional [approach], they're a pretty good match."
The couple moved to Rooty Hill in Sydney's west but their family ties in India meant there was often a financial strain.
"All the money they made here [Sylvia drove a bus, Kuldip was a taxi driver] went back to dad's family back in India," Sangha said.
But Kuldip Sangha had an entrepreneurial spirit and saw an opening for a northern Indian restaurant in Sydney's eastern suburbs.
"Dad, for three months stayed on the edge of Coogee Beach — one of the park benches — and counted the amount of people that walked past Coogee Bay Road and what bus routes went past and he wrote this whole thing down," his son said.
"Three months every day and that's how he got his data."
Eventually his father bought and ran four restaurants around Sydney but last decade's global financial crisis hit the family hard and they decided to move to Newcastle.
It was in Newcastle that Sangha's love of cricket began to flourish.
"Watching Kohli, Sachin (Tendulkar), all these guys. I wanted to be like them," he said.
"I was always thought I was pretty good at cricket. But I was always a fast bowler. I only took batting seriously when I was about 12 or 13 … I was always an opening bowler. I wanted to be a fast bowler like Zaheer Khan. I wanted to bowl big inswingers."
Sangha shows potential at an early age
Sangha was a prodigious talent. At just 13 he was selected to play first grade cricket for his club Wallsend.
"It was so strange," he said.
"I remember going to my mates at school the week before and they were playing juniors, and I was like 'I'm playing first grade on the weekend' and everyone just lost it."
A 13-year-old boy of Indian extraction among a team of white men, some more than twice his age.
"Some of the stuff I said was ridiculous, but they just laughed with it and got around me," Sangha said.
"I never encountered racism, being the only brown person at school. Even my cricket team, I was the only brown person as well. I was the only Indian person at high school."
Sangha batted at 11 and bowled a few overs of the leg spin he was now favouring. He was on his way and soon he flourished.
By 16 he was in the Australia under 19 side and given a rookie contract with New South Wales.
Sangha's love and admiration for his parents is evident when he talks about how much they sacrificed for him, particularly his mother.
"When I first got contracted to New South Wales and training was in Sydney, mum would rush from work in and pick me up from school," he said.
"They'd drive from Newcastle down to Sydney. She'd just wait in the car for me to finish training and then drive all the way back home. That was three days a week."
But now, the game that had always seemed so simple, suddenly become complicated.
Whereas before Sangha had played cricket with abandon and joy, he now started putting pressure on himself.
"I probably thought it was my only window of opportunity that I've got, and everyone says 'you don't always get second chances'," he said.
"And there was a bit of external pressure along the way. I was reading what people were saying about my technique.
"I got to a state where I was training so hard that I was almost so fatigued going to a game, but also how I was feeling mentally.
"It was pretty bad, I went through periods where I was absolutely hating cricket. I was in tears with one of my best mates, Joe at the time."
Within the middle of that turmoil at age 17, Sangha's mother announced that he should move back to Sydney to play grade cricket for Randwick Petersham and complete year 12 at the prestigious Waverley College.
"When I moved down at the time it was probably the worst decision, I was like 'I don't know where I am, I don't know anyone there, year 12's a massive year'," he said.
But over time Sangha reassessed and gained some perspective.
"I started talking to myself a bit more and actually figured out all these problems with myself," he said.
"That's the sportsman's life. There is a lot of pressure and sometimes people can handle it and sometimes they can't.
"I look back and realised how selfish I was and realised how much my parents were doing for me, how much mum sacrificed almost leaving dad up in Newcastle."
Religion becomes part of Sangha's life
It was also a chance for Sangha to reconnect with his religion.
"I went to the Sikh temple back in Blacktown a little more. It's a good way to get away from a lot of the stress, the hassle and just bring you back down to earth," he said.
"In my family and my background, religion's been quite big. My mum's dad's dad was the first person to bring the holy book from India to Australia."
While religion is important to Sangha he is not yet ready to embrace the traditional beard and a turban.
"Dad had a turban and a beard," he said.
"Fortunately I'm not as strict and went down that path. It'd be pretty hard to bat in a turban with my helmet on. But I try to get as close as I can. I wear a bandana when I bat."
The religion and his Indian heritage and support for high-profile Sikh players made for some mixed loyalties for.
"Growing up watching India versus Australia was pretty cool," he said.
"You watch someone like a Ricky Ponting or an Adam Gilchrist, who was my favourite player. The Ricky Ponting [versus] Harbajan Singh battle, it was always good fun."
This year Sangha has regained his sense of joy along with his new-found maturity.
It began with Sangha captaining the Australia under 19 side to the World Cup in New Zealand, where his team lost to India in the final
"I don't know if I'll ever play for Australia, or play for a World Cup ever again," he said.
"I don't know if that will ever happen. But to captain your country in a World Cup and to make the finals, that was crazy."
With the success comes the adulation and the calls for higher duties, but for now Sangha — who followed up his Shield century with a second-ball duck in grade cricket — is taking the good with the bad.
"It's about riding the roller coaster," he said.
"So, one week people could be saying this but who knows what they'll be saying the next week? I've dealt with that kind of stuff in the past so it's nice to know that when I encounter those situations again I know how to deal with them."
It is a trait admired by New South Wales assistant coach and retired Test spinner Beau Casson.
"I've no doubt if he's given the opportunity, he'll show his wares and do really well, just purely because of the sort of person he is and the way he goes about his cricket," Casson said.
"I've lofty goals for him."
As for Sangha himself?
"Of course, that's everyone's dream to play for Australia, but there's only one way to get there and that's just keep putting runs on the board or getting wickets," he said.
No doubt there will be plenty of runs and wickets in the years to come.
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