Aug 31: For comedian Aakash Gupta, cricket has always been more than just a sport. Long before comedy became his profession, cricket was something he pursued with complete commitment playing on his own, hiding injuries from his family and simply wanting to keep playing. In a recent conversation on The Quest Talk with Nipun Marya, CEO, iQOO, Aakash reflected on his love for cricket, his continued journey with the game, and the unexpected opportunity to perform for the Indian cricket team during the 2023 World Cup.
“For cricket you’ll have to do a separate podcast with me for 1.5 hours,” he joked, before recalling how seriously he took the sport growing up. That passion continues today through the Comedians Cricket League, where he has played matches across Chandigarh and Dharamshala and even scored a half-century, fulfilling his lifelong dream.
But performing for Team India at the 2023 World Cup was a completely different experience. The opportunity came unexpectedly after Rahul Subramanian, who was originally supposed to perform, was unable to take it up. For Aakash, performing in front of players he had grown up watching brought a very different kind of pressure.
“It was overwhelming, because they were renowned cricket personalities and I was a big cricket fan and I didn’t want to fail in front of them,” he recalled.The nerves peaked when he performed his Virat Kohli set in front of Kohli himself. “I performed my Virat Kohli set in front of him. I was nervous, and I censored it a bit while performing” he said. The evening became even more memorable after the performance, when the players gathered for dinner. With no photos or videos allowed, Aakash found another way to preserve the experience. He carried an academy bat from 2011-12 and got it signed by the players, spending a few minutes speaking with each of them. He even brought a separate SG bat for Rahul Dravid, given Dravid’s association with the brand, and asked him to sign it.
His cricketing encounters didn’t end there. Aakash has met Rohit Sharma three times, including at a CEAT Cricket awards night where he performed cricket jokes and later during a Dream11 Women’s World Cup ad shoot. On one occasion, Rohit took a moment to recognise him before realising, “Oh, it’s the same guy,” By their next meeting, the interaction had become an ongoing joke: “Oh, he’s back again!”
For Aakash, the experience brought together two worlds that have always been important to him, cricket and comedy. What began as a chance to perform for Team India became an unforgettable collection of signed bats, conversations and stories with the players he had spent years watching and admiring.