Sanjay Dogra and his uncanny and selfless love affair with cricket

A unique mixture of two different worlds; advertising and cricket, Sanjay Dogra has unequivocally been a renowned personality as far as Indian cricket circle is concerned. A former Ranji Trophy player, Sanjay Dogra hung his boots to become a very renowned advertising professional. However the bug of cricket that had bit him early in his life was still hovering around him. For the last 15 years, Sanjay Dogra, a former left arm spinner, who was known as one of the deadliest bowlers of his era and an opening bat, has been running a cricket academy in Kandivali.

One of the standout features of his academy in the Mumbai suburb is that the former Ranji player minutely scans the performance of each and every player that come to him to be trained. Only the ones with a spark in the eye and fire in the belly are picked up to be coached in the academy. It is startling to know that 19 out of 20 players are rejected, as Sanjay Dogra does not find that x-factor in them.

A task master in true sense, Sanjay Dogra believes in nothing but sheer hard work. The core values of discipline and punctuality are expected from the selected players. A no nonsense character by nature, Sanjay Dogra does not encourage cricketers who play the sport just for fun and have no ambition of playing at the highest level. The budding players who miss to fit the bill are unfortunately shown the exit door. There have been cases when selected players run away after joining as they cannot withstand the tough discipline and high intensity hard work at the training. But the players who have stuck, most of them either have entered the big league or on the way to it. Many players that have graduated from Sanjay Dogra’s academy are playing at the national level. 

“I am not the right person to coach you in cricket, if you are looking at the sport only from a fun angle. I am here to impart top class training and make exceptional cricketers. To me, fitness, mental strength, and skills supported by concrete focus are the essential ingredients to cook the success story. I often say if you learn discipline and how to respect the game then you are obliging yourself and not anyone else. Players who understand this go a long way and players who don’t understand this find it difficult to train not only with me but also with anyone, and in no time disappear like a puff of dust”, explains Sanjay Dogra.

He further adds, “I take interest only in players with high intensity focus, and discipline. Success of a player is measured by how focused hard worker he or she is with collar down. Also if you give excuses you will be fooling yourself and no one else; scorebook is the report card which is the only and ultimate performance proof of yours. I am an ardent follower of performance, because eventually that is what will separate wheat from the chaff”.

According to Sanjay Dogra,
“Training is completely a thankless job and parents should rather push their children than the trainers to be more focused and work harder because if the player does so he or she will automatically catch the eye of the trainers and officials. Moreover, respecting the game and trainers defines the quality of your focus and personality”. 

Sanjay Dogra has been at the receiving end of many kudos from the parents of the players that have been training under him. A few testimonials from the parents read as follows; “He is an epitome of hard work and is clearly a no nonsense person”, “If you want to get trained under him, you should be as determined and hard working as he is”, “Playing cricket for just whiling away time is not acceptable to him”, and “Punctuality, Discipline, Hard work, and Determination are the essential pre-requisites to join Sanjay Dogra’s academy”.

In a nutshell, it can be said that Sanjay Dogra is a firm believer in the adage, “Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration”. Thus, Sanjay Dogra welcomes only those budding cricketers to his academy who are willing to work their backside off and perspire to succeed in the sport.