There have been many stories of ‘rags to riches’ and one such familiar face in the Sri Lankan is spinner Upul Chandana now runs a cricket shop to earn his bread and butter.
Chandana has named the shop after him, and it is located inside the Nondescripts Cricket Club. Apart from cricket gears.
Chandana played 147 ODIs and 16 Test matches and scalped 151 wickets in limited overs cricket at an average of 31.90, while in Test matches, the 45-year-old picked up 37 wickets at an economy of 3.43. He has 1627 runs in One-Dayers at a strike rate of 72.99.
The downfall began when he got banned by the SLC and to add agony to it, he didn’t even receive the complete amount that was mentioned in the contract.
“There are so many cricket clubs around and there weren’t too many good sports stores in the locality. So I thought I’ll start one,” Chandana was quoted as saying by Indian Express.
“In my childhood in Galle, we played with one ball for months. There was no sports store and we had little money. Even the schools couldn’t afford it. The first time I held a cricket ball, my fingers almost went inside the ball. It was almost two separate pieces. So I decided one day when I grow up I’d open a sports store,” he further explained his stance.