New Delhi: India pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar, currently sidelined with an injury, distinctly remembers when he first realised how much he liked cricket: it was when India lost to New Zealand at the 1999 World Cup in England.
"My first cricket memory is of watching India's 1999 World Cup game against New Zealand. I remember I was watching the game at home with my sister and I cried a lot when we lost. I will never forget that moment because that was when I realized how passionate I was about this game," said the bowler who turns 31 on Friday.
Bhuvneshwar's passion for cricket was evident when he played gully cricket, though he did not quite realise his real potential for pace bowling. He highlighted the importance of a good mentor by recalling the incident that set him down the correct path.
"In gully cricket, everybody thinks of himself as an all-rounder. When I went to the academy for the first time with my sister, and the coach asked me what I did, I said everything. He saw something in me that made him hand me the ball, and since then I have never looked back," he said.