Million Dollar Arm

A few weeks ago I had realised that there were no Hollywood in Bollywood films on the horizon. Could it be? Could the Slumdog Millionaire franchise actually fail to produce another saccharine feel-good Hollywood blockbuster? Are there no more Americans that need to travel to India and “find him/herself” and return a changed human being for the greater good?

And then just like buses, three films come at once. One I’ve forgotten about already. I couldn’t face the Helen Mirren cooking one. But the baseball one seemed palatable, not least because the hunk (haven’t said that for a while) from Mad Men was in it. Enter… Million Dollar Arm.

Hall of Fame: Anjum Chopra

Charismatic and ambitious 35 year-old Indian cricketing champion, Anjum Chopra was attending a conference in New Delhi  when I stole half an hour for a wonderful interview.

How did your parents’ encouragement and support of your profession in sports help to shape your success?

Support, help, guidance, everything is because of my parents.  I would not be where I am today if I did not have their support or without their help.

How did they help you develop your sport beyond high school or college level? For example, I’m not sporty at all, however, my sister was but she was certainly never encouraged to take it to national or international level by my family.

For me that wasn’t a problem.  I managed to graduate from the best sports institution in the country, then I went to the People’s College – one of the best in Asia and then I did my MBA so education-wise I did have to go learn, get a managerial job but at the same time my hobby or my passion was sport.

Now, to start playing cricket wasn’t difficult but not many girls played cricket and there were still comments like: girls play cricket as well?!