Game Time Correspondent
Mumbai: When Vijay Pawle’s name flashed on the screen at the ISPL Season 3 auction, time seemed to pause. He was practising at his local ground when two boys nearby alerted him. Pawle stopped mid-session, pulled out his phone, and watched his destiny unfold. Moments later, he became the costliest player in ISPL history, picked up by Majhi Mumbai for ₹32.50 lakh.
“I was preparing for the league because I believed I would get selected,” Pawle says quietly, belief having guided him long before the money arrived.
Born in a small village in Mangle, Sangli district, Pawle’s journey has been anything but smooth. He comes from a modest farming family, with limited education and no sporting privileges. Like many youngsters from rural Maharashtra, he did whatever work came his way — helping at shops, working around tractors, earning daily wages just to get by. Cricket was passion, not profession. “We played cricket in the village, but there was no money in it,” he recalls.
His talent, however, refused to stay hidden. Pawle proved himself in leather-ball cricket, played two seasons in Pune, bowled at Mumbai Indians nets, and began dreaming bigger — until life intervened cruelly. A road accident left him with a serious leg injury, forcing him out of cricket for nearly one-and-a-half years. To survive, he took up a medical representative’s job in Pune, though his heart was never in it.
“I realised this profession was not for me. Cricket was always calling,” he says.
That calling led him to tennis-ball cricket — a format once dismissed as meaningless. Pawle, however, saw opportunity where others saw limitation. Slowly, teams from Pune, Kolhapur and surrounding districts noticed him. Then came ISPL.
“When ISPL started, it felt like India’s biggest tournament was about to begin. I didn’t think someone like me would make it. Big people were involved,” he admits. But he stayed fit, trained hard, filled the forms, and trusted the process.
The results changed his life. “For middle-class people like us, this kind of money matters a lot. We spend our lives trying to earn, but don’t always succeed. I haven’t achieved everything yet, but getting success on the way gives immense happiness,” Pawle says.
Beyond money, ISPL gave him identity. “Earlier, people didn’t know you could earn by playing cricket. Today, I get calls from parents asking me to train their kids. Many boys thank me because they see me as their idol. That makes me proud.”
From Sangli, Satara and Kolhapur, young players now travel with confidence, representing themselves professionally. “Money comes and goes,” Pawle reflects. “What matters is the belief ISPL has given us. It has changed our thinking.”
Now dreaming of titles and even the league’s iconic Porsche MVP prize, Pawle remains grounded. A farmer’s son who once played unnoticed in gullies now carries the hopes of countless villages.
“I motivate people because a career is possible. Many boys can prove themselves,” he says — living proof that struggle, belief and opportunity can rewrite destiny.
