'I beat cancer because I wanted to play cricket'

India's World Cup hero Yuvraj Singh is a fighter and apart from fighting many battles on the pitch, what tops the most is his fight for survival. Shortly after the 2011 ICC World Cup, which saw him bag the Player of the Tournament award, the 40-year-old was diagnosed with cancer. 

About seven months after the showpiece event, reports emerged of Yuvraj suffering from a tumour in his lung, which eventually turned out to be cancerous. However, the star cricketer was brave or lucky enough to battle the fatal disease, following which he also went to represent the Indian team and notched his highest individual score in ODI.   

Kamal Singh Kanyal, a promising cricketer from the northern state of Uttarakhand, also has a similar story. Although he is yet to feature for any of the national side, the 21-year-old opener batter has emerged to be an outstanding talent from the state.

Coming from Kunwarpur - a tiny village in Uttarakhand's Garhwal region Kanyal scored a century in his Ranji Trophy debut against Maharashtra. 

After making a century on first-class debut against Maharashtra in 2020. He then emerged as the team's leading run-scorer in the 2020-21 Vijay Hazare Trophy, and was also productive in the ongoing season, helping Uttarakhand reach the quarterfinals of the ongoing edition of the Ranji Trophy, which they lost by a record margin of 725 runs against Mumbai.

However, Kanyal's cricketing hopes almost took a hit when he was just 14 and was detected with stage two blood cancer. 

"At that age, I didn't realise the enormity of the disease. It seemed as if it was just another disease which required treatment, which would run for six months. The thought of wanting to go back and play cricket gave me the fighting spirit to beat cancer. I beat cancer because I wanted to play cricket," the 21-year-old told Cricbuzz.

In fact, the budding talent believes it was his adolescence that paved positivity into his life and helped him beat the disease.

"Woh bachpan waala nahi hota? Bachpan mein hum galat cheeze nahi dekhte, sirf achi cheeze dekhte hai (That's the thing about being a teenager, you only look at the positive side of life). I would only think about what I'm going to do ahead in life, not what I'm going to miss out on. I was only looking forward to come back and play - only looking at the solution to get back fit at the earliest, not the problem that I was facing." 

Kanyal's treatment was taken care of as his father was a retired Subedar in the Indian Army. His treatment went almost for six months (December 2014 to June 2015), during which he would spend 25 days at a hospital and return home for 10 days. 

"There really wasn't a lot to do in the hospital, I would be sleeping all the time. I must have downloaded nearly 50-odd games on my mobile phone, only to get bored and eventually uninstall all of them. At times, I would walk towards the window and stare at people walking outside or watch cricket on the television. I must have seen every possible cricket league match that was telecast then - from Big Bash to IPL.

"But in the 10-odd days when I would return home, I was pampered. With no diet restrictions, I could eat whatever I wanted, I could go out wherever I wished."

Kanyal, who grew up admiring Gautam Gambhir would often be told stories about Yuvraj during his recovery. "Everyone passing by would keep telling the same story, giving the same example. From the doctor to my family members, sabke muh se Yuvraj Singh ki hi story sun ne milti thi. (Everyone would tell me the story of how Yuvraj Singh beat cancer and returned to play cricket)," the cricketer said. 

However, back on his feet and with an experience of five first-class and nine List A matches, Kanyal is focused on making it to the next stage.

"When I had started out, there were no aspirations to play for India. Without a team on the domestic circuit, we had nothing to look forward to. It was only when I started doing well that I felt like I could play for India. If I do really well in the next few years, maybe I might get into India A or IPL. Belonging to a state like Uttarakhand, it's very difficult to play for India directly. But no one knows what's written in my destiny," he said.