India’s Test and ODI cricket team captain Shubman Gill credited his father Lakhwinder Singh for his success. “Whatever I have achieved today is because of my father’s hard work and his deep love for the sport. It was his lifelong dream to turn me into a successful cricketer,” Gill said.
“We have opened a free-of-cost training facility at our village, and whenever he goes there, he tries to spot new talent. He still shows me videos of young players who he believes have potential. So, this is not about my cricket, but he loves the sport overall. The facility caters to children from neighbouring hamlets, who lack access to formal training infrastructure,” he added.
Cricket fans often see Lakhwinder attending all of Gill’s matches, wearing a plain white kurta-pajama. “It’s his superstition. Whenever he wears the plain white kurta-pajama, I score runs or the Indian team wins. So he wears the same attire wherever he comes to watch the match, no matter if in India or abroad,” said Gill. “My father is quite superstitious when it comes to my games, so he makes a point to stick to his lucky attire every time,” he added.
Gill was at Maharaja Yadavindra Singh PCA International Cricket Stadium for the unveiling of the logo of the Sher-E-Punjab T20 league, scheduled to start on August 30. “The Sher-E-Punjab T20 League will be a fantastic platform for young cricketers to showcase their talent and progress towards playing for Punjab and India. Punjab has always produced outstanding cricketers, and I believe this league will help discover many more. I congratulate the Punjab Cricket Association for this wonderful initiative and wish the league great success,” said Gill, who will be also playing the tournament, scheduled to be held at the Mullanpur facility.
New T20 league
The Punjab Cricket Association (PCA) will organise the Sher-E-Punjab T20 League from August 30 to September 23, with top cricketers, including ODI and Test team captain Shubman Gill, Arshdeep Singh, Abhishek Sharma, Gurnoor Brar, Prabhsimran Singh and Ramandeep Singh, playing at the Maharaja Yadavindra PCA International Cricket Stadium. The tournament will be the first franchisee based league T20 tournament organised by the PCA. A total of six teams will compete in this tournament, which will feature 27 matches — two matches daily, including one under floodlights. The tournament will be played in a round-robin format.
