Wunderkind - Rahul Trineth Madhan Prabhu

When passion meets action, endless achievements ensue! Here is young blood Trineth Rahul, who talks about his passion for the game of cricket and the journey to his selection in the Under 19 Swedish National Cricket team. Indians Tillsammans celebrates his success and wishes him all the very best for his future endeavours!

Hej! I am Trineth Rahul Madhan Prabhu and I’m 15 years old. I play for the Helsingborgs U19 team, Skåne Storm as well as The Swedish National Cricket Team. I am an all-rounder bowling right arm off-spin and a right-handed batsman. 

About his love for the game:
My passion for cricket started when I was 6 years old in Bangalore. Going to see my dad play in matches for his club and watching IPL’s 2012 season developed my interest. Watching teams play under the floodlights with an incredible amount of fans really caught my eye. The intensity, explosiveness and the high pressure moments of IPL(Indian Premier League) games also grew the passion even further.  I had interests in other sports and I still do have interests in other sports but it’s almost like I was programmed to play cricket. No matter how much I play other sports, nothing can stop me from playing cricket, not even myself.

The Journey in India: 
The journey started when I was 6 joining my first coaching camp. I regularly attended the practices and built my interest even further. In 2013, I went to watch an IPL game in Bangalore’s Chinnaswamy stadium. I went to see the RCB (Royal Challengers Bangalore) vs DD (Delhi Daredevils) match and that’s when I knew I wanted to be a cricket player. I simply loved the atmosphere in the stadium and it really motivated me to play more in order to reach that stage. In 2014, I joined the J. Arun Kumar Cricket Academy, founded by J. Arun Kumar who is a former coach of Karnataka and former RCB player. I attended coaching there until I moved to Sweden in 2015.

Experiencing Cricket in Sweden & the Milestones: 
When I moved to Sweden, I did find myself having other interests but always ended up playing cricket in one way or another. For example in the form of just playing in the backyard with friends and family. I have been part of the Helsingborg Royals junior team since 2017. In 2018, we played against Göteborg CC U15 which was my first proper match experience. Although my performance was rather weak in that series, I still learned a lot from it. In 2019, I attended the trials for the Sweden U19 camp. I showcased my Off-Spin ability really well through this. In 2020 the Helsingborg U15 team joined the U15 tournament. As a team we had a really successful season that year coming second in the points table in our debut season. My performance that season was good but I wasn’t very satisfied with it. I didn’t feel like my performance was up to my potential. My highest score that season was 34* and took a decent amount of wickets. I was really down that whole season. I wanted to get back up and perform better and train harder for the next season. I increased my practice frequency from 1 practice a day to 3-4 times a day. This helped me become a more fearless player. I was also called for the U19 camp that year and I performed well taking 5 wickets in 3 matches which boosted my confidence. The 2021 season was the most successful season for me yet. In U15, I really tried to take the opportunity to push myself in batting, scoring two 50s. My bowling in U15 was my best ever, scoring 3/6. I captained the team this year. Our team came in 2nd on the points table with only 1 loss My U19 season has been even more successful in terms of bowling, getting 11 wickets in the whole season. I took at least 2 wickets in every game. My batting was very inconsistent for most of the season but I really worked hard and believed in my potential in my batting. In the very last game I scored 36(34)* which really motivated me as an all rounder. In the middle of the 2021 U19 season, I attended the Junior Premier League (JPL) trials and I passed the fitness tests and the trials and I got selected for the Skåne Storm team. I traveled to Stockholm to compete in the JPL and I had an exceptional season, being the 2nd highest wicket taker in Skåne storm and I was 9th highest in the overall JPL tournament. My best figures were 3/8. I was able to impress the national team coaches including Jonty Rhodes to select me for the 18 player squad for the national team through these performances. I was also put into the U17 development squad. I was part of the 14-member-team travelling to Denmark to play against Denmark. I was given a limited number of chances but I did debut in Denmark and bowled my first international overs which was a huge achievement for me. The experience I gained through that tour is what mattered the most.

Challenges & Overcoming them:
In my journey so far, I’ve had a few major challenges like having the fear of the ball while batting. I overcame this by facing the fear. After getting hit on the body once or twice I realized that I overcame it. The only way to get rid of fear is to face it in my opinion. I also had the challenge of being upset with myself after a bad game or performance and I only took the negatives from it. I started changing my mindset to a more positive one and being optimistic and calm during high pressure moments and I eventually overcame that as well.

Inspiration & Hardwork:
My cricket role models are Ravichandran Ashwin, Glenn Maxwell, Virat Kohli and my dad. My practice routine this season was very intense but also effective. I’d practice at least 4-5 times a week. Sunday was always match day for our club. I bowled at least 800-1000 balls per week. I'd run 2 kms every day and I strictly followed fitness plans sent by my Skåne Storm RSMs and my national team coaches to mainly work on cardio. I went to the gym to do strength training as well. In terms of diet I just decided to eat slightly limited food compared to how much I usually ate in order to maintain weight while not reducing too much food. My diet was very balanced overall. I still strictly follow my fitness and dietary routines.

His wish for the future:
My wish for the coming years is to stay in the national team for a long term because reaching the national team is one thing but staying is another very difficult thing, so I need to work harder and more consistently in order to stay. My long term goal is to be able to participate in mainstream limited overs leagues and also compete more against other countries with Sweden in order to gain more exposure. But my ultimate goal is to play in the IPL.     Special thanks to my coaches from Helsingborg, Skåne and the National team coaches. The support of my teams, teammates, coaches, friends and family play a massive part in my success so far.

Words of encouragement from Trineth Rahul for young potentials (video)

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