When a father puts his everything - efforts, might, money, livelihood - into making their offspring what they couldn't and let them achieve the world, emotions flow like how it did for Mutyala Reddy, all-rounder Nitish Reddy's father on Saturday, December 28. The broadcaster couldn't stay away from following Mutyala's altering expressions seeing his son run out of partners and almost miss out on a ton before witnessing a packed MCG up on its feet to salute the 21-year-old, who played one of the innings of a lifetime by an Indian in a Test in Australia.
Reddy's father has played a massive role in Nitish adapting to cricket and then transition to the IPL and now a bonafide India star from taking him to academies far off and sacrificing everything in order to fulfill the dream of seeing his son play for the country. Mr Reddy was all over social media and news channels across India and Australia talking about his emotions and just the pride after Nitish's maiden Test ton, rescuing his side from a precarious position.
At the start of the fourth day's play, the Indian broadcaster Star Sports facilitated a meet and greet for Nitish's family - his father, mother, sister and uncle - with Sunil Gavaskar and Ravi Shastri, the legends of Indian cricket and broadcasting. The emotions were palpable, the feelings were raw and real.
Watch the video here:
After talking to each other for a few seconds, Mr Reddy fell on Gavaskar's feet, while paying his respects to the Indian great by touching his feet. Gavaskar gave his blessings to Reddy's parents as well as his sister as the Indian legend himself got emotional talking about Reddy's knock after having read about his journey, in which his father played a starring role.
Reddy's maiden Test ton not only helped India avoid the follow-on but also reduce the deficit a fair bit as Australia got a lead of 105 runs in the first innings.
