Kenjige to don USA colours

Bengaluru: Left-arm spinner Noshtush Kenjige, like any other cricketer, had dreams of playing for India. After playing almost a decade in the Karnataka State Cricket Association’s first division with various teams, the man from Chikkamagaluru found it tough to graduate to the next level. But next month’s T20 World Cup will be the stuff of dreams for the seasoned campaigner as he will don the USA colours.
At 25, as the prospect of wearing state or national colours waned, Kenjige moved to the country of his birth — the United States — in 2015 to make a career away from sport. "When I left for the US, I thought I was done with cricket. I went there to work, though I did play in local matches," the Alabama-born, a master’s degree holder in medical instrumentation from Dayananda Sagar college, said.
But as he continued his work in the US and spun a web in local cricket a new window of international cricket opened for him.
Kenjige impressed the scouts at the team trial hubs, held across the States, and then made a mark in the open trials and selection matches. But he had to wait for three more years to be eligible to play for the US as, despite being a US citizen, he had not lived in the country for four years.
The other option was to do a community service of 800 hours. Kenjige chose the latter to fast-track his career and in 2017 he was picked for the World Cricket League tour of Uganda.
From then on, Kenjige has never looked back and was recently named in the USA squad for the T20 World Cup in the West Indies and the US, starting next month. “The feeling has not sunk in yet,” said Kenjige, who will get to face India, Pakistan, Canada and Ireland in Group A. “As a kid, you always wanted to play for your country – India, but it did not happen. The second-best thing would be playing against India. It is a dream come true,” said Kenjige, whose father is a coffee planter in Chikkamagaluru.
NO STRANGER TO T20S
The 33-year-old, who quit work after the US got ODI status in 2019, understands the World Cup to be a ‘beast’, but the spinner is no stranger to T20 stars. He has been part of the MI New York and MI Emirates teams in the Major League Cricket and ILT20 respectively. One of the net bowlers for Mumbai Indians in IPL, Kenjige was in the city to train at the Karnataka Institute of Cricket before leaving for the US. “As I am his childhood coach, he wanted to try out a few things before the World Cup. He was here for the last 3-4 days,” said Irfan Sait, director, KIOC.
Kenjige has come a long way since his KIOC days and has been a regular feature in the USA squad, playing 40 ODIs and 4 T20Is with hauls of 38 and 4 wickets respectively. But the big test awaits him at home within a few weeks. “This is our first World Cup and the T20 format balances teams out. It gives the best chance for an underdog to catch the bigger team on that off day. We are good enough to upset some teams. It is also a good opportunity to showcase our talents and make the best use of it,” he signed off.