Cooking up a wicket

Irfan Mallick at Yugo Sushi. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

Pali Hill's takeaway joint Yugo Sushi serves stellar sushi and the innovative sushi burrito, or sushi-in-a-roll. A lone person is manning the place when we reach there on a wintry Friday afternoon. Irfan Mallick is a strapping young man with a chiselled face and calm, light-brown eyes. He's the one who opens the shutters in the mornings and works there till 2.30 pm, which is when he takes a break before returning to the eatery around 8 pm. But this break isn't meant for rest. Instead, Mallick rushes to Bandra station and catches a train to Islam Gymkhana at Marine Lines. That's the cricket club he represents, where the left-arm pacer bowls his heart out for three hours every evening. It's a hectic day he keeps, considering he has to switch from his cricketing whites to his chef's coat right after a gruelling practice session. "Sometimes, it's as if I am sleepwalking when I come into work after a match," the chef-cricketer says. But he isn't complaining. On the contrary, Mallick is living a dream that started when he first picked up a cricket ball as a 10-year-old in Ranchi, his hometown - or "the land of MS Dhoni", as the 23-year-old says.

This, then, is one man's story that reflects how Mumbai is simultaneously the city of dreams and the megapolis of struggle. You'll get what you want here, but only if you shed blood and sweat. Mallick has always had just one ambition, to play professional cricket. And he's now realising that, having picked up 11 wickets in three matches in the ongoing Purshottam Shield. But he started off on a sticky wicket so to speak, since he arrived here three years ago to pursue his career with hardly any money, no lodging and no cricketing contacts. He found a relative who put him up in Kurla though, while someone else told him that there is only one place to go if you want to kick-start your cricketing fortunes in Mumbai - Dadar's Shivaji Park.

Mallick lets one rip during net practice at Islam Gymkhana. Pic/Atul Kamble

"The first time I went there," Mallick says, "I felt a bit lost in the sea of cricketers dressed in white. But then I approached a man teaching his son, telling him that I was looking to practise on a regular basis. He told me to come back the next morning and meet a coach named Prashant Shetty. I did. Prashant sir liked what he saw and directed me to MIG Club in Bandra, where I started daily net sessions."

That's what put him on track to playing B-division matches for Islam Gymkhana. But Mallick had to cross one final hurdle before that. He needed to get a job to survive in this ruthlessly expensive city. Thankfully, he learnt of an opening at Yugo Sushi. The only problem was that he was clueless about food. But the restaurant's Japanese owner, Yugo Tokuchi, personally taught him the ropes for a month. "After that, I started practising with takeaway orders while my seniors guided me, till I reached a point where I was confident of taking orders even from walk-in customers," he says.

So that's where Mallick stands at this point in his life. His job doesn't pay a jaw-dropping salary. But it offers him the flexibility he needs to pursue his passion. His hope of playing under-23 state cricket has been quashed due to bureaucratic hurdles in acquiring a Maharashtra Cricket Association card. But his performance in the ongoing tournament means that other, bigger clubs now have him on their radar. The youngster thus feels that Mumbai has granted him 50 per cent of his wishes. But he adds that this is only the beginning. "I feel like I have a lot more to achieve," Mallick says, indicating that the man from the land of MS Dhoni is here to play a long innings.

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