During an illustrious career, Harbhajan Singh, a former Indian off-spinner, outfoxed some of the greatest batsmen ever to have played the game.
But long before he became an international cricketer, Harbhajan didn’t even have the equipment to play the sport he fell in love with as a child.
Born into a middle-class family in Punjab, Harbhajan struggled to acquire a pair of shoes to play proper cricket in his early days.
It was from that humble background that Harbhajan emerged before going on to become one of the greatest spinners of all time.
Now the legendary Indian cricketer is deeply moved by DP World’s Beyond Boundaries initiative to provide aspiring cricketers with kits.
Under the new initiative, DP World, the title sponsors of the ongoing ILT20, will leverage its end-to-end network and smart logistics to deliver 50 repurposed shipping containers, all containing cricket kits, to support grassroots cricket clubs around the world over the next five years.
Harbhajan, who took 417 wickets in 103 Test matches, says he could not have even dreamt of opportunities like this when he was an aspiring cricketer in the early 1990s.
“When I was growing up, I didn’t have anything, all I had was the will, the will to play for India, the will to become someone like Kapil Dev,” the 43-year-old said during an event at the DP World headquarters in Dubai on Thursday.
“It’s important to have that will. It’s also important to have kits, shoes, and everything you need to play the sports. But all these come when you play well, somebody will sponsor you, somehow you will get the kit.”
As part of the initiative, young UAE cricketers were gifted kits by Harbhajan and DP World officials on Thursday. Harbhajan hopes the initiative will inspire these youngsters to dream big.
“Now DP World has become that source for you to get those kits, this is a great initiative,” he said.
“It means a lot to these kids to get kits. For me when I was young, when I got my first pair of bowling shoes, it meant the world to me. I have kept them even today. So that was the most precious gift I ever got as a cricketer.”
Meanwhile, Alan Wilkins, well-known cricket commentator who hosted the event at the DP World headquarters on Thursday, hailed the new initiative aimed at promoting the sport at the grassroots level.
“DP World’s new initiative is focused on making cricket possible at a grassroots level and growing the game that we love,” the former England first-class cricketer said.
“Grassroots cricket is so important, if we don’t get grassroots cricket right, we don’t produce wonderful cricketers like Harbhajan Singh!”
Ten of the containers will also feature the artwork of the iconic Sachin Tendulkar to “serve as an inspiration to young cricketers”.
‘Each of these containers will contain 250 cricket kits, including bats, helmets, gloves, pads, they are also multi-purpose containers, with an in-built scoreboard, changing rooms and also a roll-out cricket pitch,” Wilkins said.
DP World has also pledged a kit for every six hit in the ongoing ILT20.