Mahinder Pal Singh, a 20-year-old Sikh boy from Pakistan is dreaming big to represent his country of birth-Pakistan at the international stage. Mahinder wants to earn for himself and is ambitious to be a hero of big and eye-catching matches such as between India and Pakistan.
He has also discussed his family life in an interview given to Pakassion.net and said that his relatives and friends residing in India will root for Pakistan in the matches when he will represent Pakistan.
“Absolutely. It would mean so much to me to play for Pakistan against India at any level of cricket. If you ask any cricketer, they will say that they want to play in high-pressure matches, the big occasions where the world is watching. India versus Pakistan is always a special occasion and I would love the opportunity to be a part of this occasion at some point in the future in my cricketing career. I would love to be called a hero in a high-tempo match, against strong opposition and watched by fans all around the world. I have relatives in Punjab in India, my aunt lives there along with many other relatives who we meet on a regular basis. As well as this, I have a lot of fans in India, especially from Punjab who always wish me well and say that if I ever play for Pakistan, they will support me and Pakistan in those matches,” Singh told Pakpassion.net when asked about his aspiration to play big games and especially against India.
Talking about the difficulties he has to deal with in pursuit of survival and becoming a cricketer from the Sikh community in Pakistan, Mahinder Pal Singh said that he never give up on working hard on his dreams and that he did not heed to the advice given by many to leave the fantasy of playing cricket in Pakistan because of his Sikhi origin.
“Many people said to me, don’t be silly about playing cricket professionally in Pakistan. They said to me, as a Sikh you have no chance as you will always be discriminated against. But in my heart, there was this burning desire to prove people wrong and I knew that if I worked hard nothing could hold me back. I’ve had to struggle a lot and there have been some very tough days but I am not prepared to give up on my dream. I have encountered discrimination at many levels and some snide comments, but there are good and bad people everywhere. If one out of 100 people is racist, that means that the other 99 people are not. I tend to focus on the good people who support me and encourage me, rather than worrying about the 1% of the ignorant people who offer negative opinions about me,’ Singh added in his response to Pakpassion.net.
Singh also said that he takes inspiration from Bhupinder Singh and Gulab Singh, only two players of Sikh origin who went on to play in Pakistan' domestic cricket but failed to go higher to the international level instead of getting dismayed from his path in trying to win a national call up. Mahinder Pal Singh had burst onto the scene after his selection into the camp of emerging fast bowlers organised by Pakistan's National Cricket Academy coaches and currently plays for Wahadat Eaglets Club Lahore where former Pakistan pace bowler Mohsin Kamal played for and Babar Azam played for this club until he was 16 years old.
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