‘Used to play cricket with gangsters’, Sehwag on life before India selection

“Do you know why Najafgarh was famous? For gangsters, whenever you open a newspaper you will see a headline related to murder, theft, etc. in Najafgarh. There were many villages around our area, from where famous gangsters would come and almost 100 people were killed in gang wars around the area,” Sehwag said.

He added that he used to play tennis ball cricket with gangsters without really knowing who they are.

“We didn’t know they were gangsters. They were of our age, and it was like in the evening they are playing with us and in the morning their dead bodies were discovered, as they were involved with multiple crimes with many gangs,” Sehwag added in the interview with TRS.

The veteran cricketer shared that, then they were scared and tried to filter people while playing. “We stopped entertaining outsiders, as we don’t know their background, someone just might be playing with us and the police may take us otherwise as gangsters or something,” he added.

Sehwag had to consciously separate himself from such kids and he has to choose a different path, the path of cricket, and then after he played for India, he got the badge of “Nawab of Najafgarh.” That helped to create some change in the image of Najafgarh.

When asked if that’s the reason for his aggressive batting, Sehwag laughed and said, “If I would have known, they are gangsters, I would have avoided them, and I don’t always judge the person from their present and how they are behaving with me. I rely more on face value and people even misuse it, but that’s how I am.”