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From cleaning toilets to playing in T20 World Cup: How Punjab's Simi Singh made it to Ireland team

Punjab-born Irish star Simi Singh wanted to play cricket at the highest stage for India but was unable to break through at the junior level.

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Indian-origin cricketers have played for several national teams across the world. Some of them have inspiring stories of struggle to realise their dreams of playing at the international stage. One such story belongs to Ireland’s Simi aka Simranjeet Singh, the Indian-born cricketer part of the T20 World Cup 2022 squad.

Simi Singh wanted to play for India at the highest stage, just like any other young cricketer in the country. But unable to break through at the junior level, Simi Singh eventually turned to another route to fulfil his dream of playing international cricket. However, his real struggle had not even started. 

How Simi Singh fulfilled his cricketing dream

The second-innings for Simi Singh began when an opportunity arose to make Ireland his unlikely destination out of nowhere. It was a friend who Singh had trained alongside in Mohali who brought the idea to him.

Ireland was never “specifically” on Simi Singh’s mind until the friend who had gone to the European country to study made a call back home. He advised Simi Singh to try his luck in Ireland for a season, fuelling the idea that he might one day be able to play for the country.

Back in India, the financial circumstances of Simi Singh were not so bad, coming from a middle-class home where his parents had steady government jobs. But when you head to a foreign country where you have no support system, the going is bound to get tough.

On a student visa in Ireland, Simi Singh had to resort to temporary jobs to sustain himself. While he never had to perform any household duties in India, the foreign country did not give the same comfort to Singh.

Working a part-time gig at a hardware store, he had to do manual labour, lugging heavy wood to store shelves. Simi Singh was also asked by his boss to perform tasks that he called “humiliating”, revealing in an interview to Sportskeeda that he had to clean toilets and change bins too.

Looking back, Singh calls the experience “important” in his cricketing journey. Singh’s first-class debut in Ireland cam in 2017 when he broke into the List A team Leinstar Lightning. In the 2019 Inter-Provincial Championship, Simi Singh emerged as the highest scorer as well as leading wicket-taker.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Simi Singh (@simi_singh21)

 

In 2018, he was awarded a central contract along with 18 other players by the country’s cricket association for the upcoming season. He was then contracted full-time by Cricket Ireland in 2020.

Singh got his first big break in Ireland the same year, making his ODI debut against New Zealand. He made his T20I debut the following year against Netherlands, becoming the first batter playing at number 8 or below to make a half-century on T20I debut. His first five wicket haul in ODIs came against the UAE in 2021 and he scored his first ODI century against South Africa the same year. The recognition came in January 2022 when he was named in the ICC Men's ODI Team of the Year for 2021.

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by Simi Singh (@simi_singh21)

 

At 35, Simi Singh is now part of the Ireland team at the T20 World Cup 2022, having fulfilled his cricketing dream and now representing a nation at the games highest stage in the marquee tournament.

Live match update: England vs Ireland T20 World Cup 2022 live updates: ENG to bowl first, check team news, LIVE scorecard

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