Royal Challengers Bengaluru star batsman and Bengaluru boy Devdutt Padikkal paid an impromptu visit to his alma mater, St. Joseph’s Boys High School (SJBHS), on a recent
Saturday, reliving those three years (2013-16) of walking down corridors and the sports field with his childhood friends again. “It was a surprise! We’re always happy to have students of his calibre return, especially since he’s a model to emulate for our youngsters,” says Principal Fr. Norwin Pereira.
Back in 2015, when cricketer Rahul Dravid inaugurated the SJBHS indoor sports facility, a wide-eyed 15-year-old Padikkal, then the captain of the school cricket
team, was chosen to present the senior player a memento. Today, seeing the 25-year-old as the Karnataka Ranji team captain and star batsman for RCB is a full circle moment for both players and their former history teacher Gowri Mirlay-Achanta. She recalls,“Seeing Devdutt’s excitement, I thought to myself that one day he will also be in that chair receiving something big. I’m sure he still has those pictures, him looking at Dravid in awe (in pic).” Having taught the school’s breakout cricketers over her 40 years there, she notes one quality in common, saying, “Teenagers are of an age where they are distracted but these students were incredibly focussed and hard working.”
A Fateful Test
Padikkal’s high school coach recalls the fateful test that got Padikkal, then an Army Public School student, a transfer to SJBHS in Class 8. Padikkal’s parents were determined to give their son the best chance. “After a week of them requesting me during practice at the grounds, we brought him in to play for one hour. He played wonderfully and it was in this match that the other cricket team members mentioned that this was the boy who had scored a half-century in the last inter-school match they had played and given them tough competition,” recalls coach Mehboob Pasha. When the time for the first match came, a timid Padikkal was the only one who agreed to open. “I asked all the boys ‘who will open?’ but none of them wanted to. And when I asked this new boy on the team, he said in a soft voice ‘Yes sir, I will’ – he went on to score a century in that match,” smiles Pasha.
