MUMBAI: Pranav Dhanawade, who, in January 2016 created a sensation when he became the first batsman to score more than 1,000 runs in one innings in an officially recognised match in an inter-school game, will now soon fly to London to play club cricket after bagging a lucrative contract with a cricket club in England.
"I'm flying to the UK on Tuesday. I've got a contract to play for the Northwich Cricket Club in Cheshire, near Manchester. It's a six-month contract, which will run from April to September. I'm very happy to have bagged this contract, as it will give me the experience of playing in completely different conditions and wickets.
"The season here is almost over, so this is better than just sitting home. The contract will help me financially too. My father (Prashant Dhanawade) still drives an auto. When I went with Dilip Vengsarkar sir (to play for his academy team) to the UK in 2017, I made friends there, who approached me to play there. For the past two years, they'd been inviting me to play for them, but I couldn't go due to the bad Covid situation here. This time, finally, I'm going after having tried for this since 2019," Dhanawade told TOI.
The 21-year-old still nurtures his cricketing dreams. "I want to play for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy. I haven't given up on hard work," said the wicketkeeper-bats man from Kalyan, who trains under his coach Mobin Shaikh.
