'Dad said, 'Give me 2 years of your life. Then, do whatever you want': CSK star reveals father's role in cricket career

The Chennai Super Kings endured a tough 2022 Indian Premier League season, as the side was eliminated from the race for playoffs after its loss in the last game against Mumbai Indians. It has also been a rough season off-the-field for the CSK, with a back-and-forth in captaincy as MS Dhoni was reinstated as the skipper of the side after Ravindra Jadeja stepped down from the role mid-way through the edition. Follow IPL 2022 Coverage

On Saturday, another controversy erupted when Ambati Rayudu announced his retirement from IPL through his official Twitter account, but deleted the tweet minutes later. CSK CEO Kasi Viswanathan later said that Rayudu is not retiring from the league.

However, the season also had a few positives for CSK with the likes of Mukesh Choudhary and Simarjeet Singh impressing with the ball in the absence of Deepak Chahar. After a slow start to the season, Moeen Ali also showed signs of his return to form – especially with the ball.

Moeen has been one of the integral parts of CSK for the last few years and was retained by the side ahead of the mega auction preceding the season. In a video for the Super Kings, Moeen opened up on his formative years in cricket and revealed how his father pushed him to take up cricket as a profession.

“My dad said, ‘from 13-15, give me two years of your life. After school, we train, we go outside in the park, do whatever it takes. 2 years of your life. After that, do whatever you want’,” Moeen recalled in the video.

“That was really the mindset that he gave me. Training every day. Of course, I wanted to hang around with my friends and do what everybody else does as kids. (But) At the same time, it was my dad's drive, his passion that really got us focussed and made us persist. We were adamant we were going to make it and that's the attitude that came from our dad,” Moeen said.

The English all-rounder also opened up on his tough childhood.

“We weren't very well off. We didn't have a lot of money. We couldn't afford petrol, sometimes food. I didn't even have my own pads at one point; I had to use my dad's best friend's son's pads for trials. So, yeah, it was very very difficult. Even the area we were living in, was a very rough area,” said the England all-rounder.