Suryakumar Yadav is enjoying his success in the shortest format. After playing his part in Team India’s win in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, he was recently named the Men in Blue’s captain in the shortest format. He will lead India in the upcoming three-match T20I series against Sri Lanka.
However, his childhood coach Ashok Aswalkar is going through tough times. He was sacked from his job after 24 years and is now earning ₹10,000 per month.
The 61-year-old was working as a curator and coach and he was being paid ₹41,000 for his two roles.
“I became a part of the BARC [Bhabha Atomic Research Centre] ground in 1989-90 and was helping Jagannath Phanse as a groundsman and coach. My starting salary was and when I was sacked in December 2023, I was getting R26,000 per month for the groundsman job and R15,000 for coaching the players,” Aswalkar told Mid-day.
He didn’t share the news of his removal with his family. Aswalkar joined an indoor turn in Chembur as a coach and is getting just ₹10K a month. He spoke to Suryakumar about his condition.
“I texted Surya to inform him that I lost my job and told him the name of the period who was behind the entire episode. Surya has stopped taking to that person,” Aswalkar said.
According to him, he went to attend a wedding of his nephew and everything changed the moment he return to work.
“The behaviour of my colleagues was different when I returned to resume my duty. I was told to go back home and wait for a call. This was humiliating. I was told to visit my work place a week later and when I went, no one met me,” he added.
“After a month, I met some of the committee members, who asked me questions. After listening to me, the committee members said that they will get in touch with me. However, no one contacted me and the last salary I got was ₹26,911 in December 2023.”
Ramakant Sahu, the head of ASMC, said that there was some miscommunication. He said that Aswalkar was unhappy due to some reasons and they are ready to give him his old job back. However, SKY’s coach is not willing to return and is planning to open a cricket academy with the help of the new India skipper.