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Nitish Reddy, who hammered 105 runs from 176 balls for India on the third day of the ongoing 4th India-Australia Test in Melbourne, opened up about his father’s contribution.
Nitish Kumar Reddy’s father left his govt job to focus on his cricket career. (Picture Credit: AP, Instagram)
21-year-old Nitish Kumar Reddy was on fire for Team India on Saturday, December 28, and scored his maiden Test century. The batting all-rounder from Andhra came out to bat at No. 8 for the Rohit Sharma-led side in the ongoing Boxing Day Test at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, and with the help of 10 fours and 1 six, scored 105 runs on the third day of the match. Reddy, who made his Test debut for India last month in Perth, crossed the triple-figure mark with a boundary on the 171st ball of his inning. After becoming the fifth Indian batter to score a century in the Boxing Day Test at MCG, Reddy celebrated in style, and his father, Mutyala Reddy, who was present at the stadium to cheer for him and Team India, also came up with a heartwarming celebration.
The man, who quit his government job 13 years ago to focus on his son’s cricket career, got emotional as well, and several videos of him with tears in his eyes are going viral on the internet.
Mutyala played a big role in Nitish’s career, which was acknowledged by the cricketer himself a few months back during an interview with CricketNext.
After he made headlines for his performances in IPL 2024 for SRH, Nitish, while speaking to the website, opened up about his father’s contribution and said, “If I have to tell that whole story, it will take 2-3 hours to tell. But cutting it short, he resigned from his job for me. I was just starting my career and was about to go to the academy in a few weeks. That’s when he took that call to stay. He was transferred to Rajasthan and had to stay there. People said if he goes to Rajasthan, how will he manage everything here?
“So, my father took this decision to stay back and keep working with me. Since that day, his job has been to take care of me. In fact, he does that even today. I’m so happy that I’m seeing some progress in my game, and I’m making him proud. A son couldn’t have asked for anything more than this from his father,” Reddy added.
Nitish was eight years old when his father, who was posted in Rajasthan, decided to quit his government job at Hindustan Zinc and stay back in Andhra to work towards his son’s ambitions.
“Amid all the criticism, my father somehow believed that my son is going to make it big. People who backbit about him would now call my father to praise me or would invite me and my father for dinner. You can see the progress and all. I’m so happy that my father is also getting back his lost respect,” the cricketer said.
