If you watched cricket in the late ’90s, you must remember a bowler with a weird action, flapping jersey and loads of heart. That was Debashish Mohanty from Odisha.
For kids who came from a state nobody talked about, Mohanty was everything. He wasn’t just a name on the team sheet he was proof that someone from our part of the country could actually make it to the top.
Before Mohanty, Odisha had no face in Indian cricket. We weren’t mentioned in sports pages, we weren’t in cricket debates and we definitely weren’t in the national spotlight.
Then out of the blue he was picked for the 1999 World Cup. He wasn’t even in the list of probables. But he made the cut—and boy did he make it count.
Though he played four less games than others, Mohanty ended up as India’s second-highest wicket-taker in the tournament.
He bowled with swing, intelligence and calmness. He didn’t need pace he had control.
That World Cup was the high point. It felt like a turning point not just for him but for all of us from Odisha. We finally had someone we could proudly call our own.
But Indian cricket was ruthless back then—especially to fast bowlers. The team kept rotating names like Tinu Yohannan, Harvinder Singh, Abey Kuruvilla and more. Mohanty too got caught in that cycle.
Ajit Agarkar was the new favorite. He had more pace, could hit the ball and was marketed as the next Kapil Dev.
Mohanty didn’t have that extra edge. He struggled on dead Indian pitches where there was no swing to help him. By 2001 his international career was over.
What hurt the most was how quickly he was forgotten. Not because he did badly but because he didn’t have a godfather or big backing.
Back home though his name stayed alive. Everyone had a story about him—”He lived near my uncle’s house”, “He played with my brother”, “He used to buy cigarettes from this shop”.
Whether true or not didn’t matter. He belonged to us. He made us believe that Odisha wasn’t invisible anymore.He didn’t play 100 matches.
He didn’t get a retirement speech. But what he did mattered more than numbers he inspired a whole generation.
He gave people from a forgotten state a reason to cheer. He made it okay to dream big even if you came from a small place. That kind of impact can’t be measured in wickets or matches.
Debashish Mohanty may not be remembered in cricket shows or big highlight reels. But for us who were looking for someone to represent us, he was our hero.
He may have disappeared from the national stage but he never disappeared from our hearts.
