Manoj Sharma, the IPS officer behind ‘12th Fail’, takes his story to Mumbai’s cricket dressing room

Suryakumar Yadav with IPL Manoj Sharma. (Special arrangement)

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For more than an hour inside the Wankhede dressing room, Mumbai’s cricketers listened to someone else’s story. The speakers were IPS officer Manoj Sharma, the real-life hero of the film “12th Fail”, and his wife, IRS officer Shraddha Sharma. The Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) had organised the session a few days before the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy begins.

The idea was to give players a hero from outside sport. “It was a pep talk session for our players and support staff who are chasing a dream to excel in their life. The MCA does have a few off-field activities during the domestic calendar and this is one of them,” MCA president Ajinkya Naik told The Indian Express. “We thought of calling Manoj Sir and Shraddha madam for their valuable input on how to overcome all obstacles in life and achieve their goals. We wanted players to understand that they can achieve anything in life if they are committed to it. Despite adverse situations in personal life one should follow their dream and keep trying. The session was on how Mumbai players can apply Manoj Sir’s personal experience in their cricketing career to achieve their goal.”

Manoj is currently posted as Joint Commissioner of Police, Law and Order, in Mumbai. Shraddha is posted at Mumbai Customs. The film made on him was a huge hit and was loved across India. Mumbai captain Suryakumar Yadav, Sarfaraz Khan, Shardul Thakur and other players were in the room.

Manoj spoke about the need to stay humble after success. The players were told to keep their heads grounded in bad times and not let their minds drift. “It was a very maazedaar session for us, we had seen the picture but to hear him in person was really inspirational. Manoj sir spoke about how to remain humble in life and how they should never change for the few people whom they have known since long,” Mumbai batsman Musheer Khan said.

“Shraddha maam had the best line, which I will take for sure. She said that one can’t get heaven until they sacrifice. Success demands lots of sacrifice and, to reach a goal, har insaan ko jalnaa padega,” he added.
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Mumbai have had a good run with the red ball, winning all their Ranji Trophy matches so far, and with domestic T20 around the corner they will hope to do well with a star-studded line-up. Manoj and Shraddha spoke about how one must behave after reaching success: stay humble, and keep trying for the goal.