Meet Shiva Vashishat USA U-19 Captain July 17, 2009
Appointed captain of the USA U-19 team, Shiva Vashishat successfully led the team over the first hurdle in the ICC World Cup Qualifiers in Toronto last week. A quiet and unassuming young man, Shiva spoke with Dr. Sham Samaroo upon his return from Canada.
Originally from Punjab, India, Shiva came to the USA in 2000 at the age of ten. “I played cricket in India and was very excited” upon arriving in San Jose and finding out that cricket was also played there, he tells me. Shiva recalls, fondly, the tender years playing with the Bay Area Cricket Alliance. Today, he plays for Santa Clara in the A Division. Days before leaving for Canada, Shiva and teammate, Arjune, both hit hundreds as Santa Clara successfully chased down a target of 230.
Shiva’s big break came at the age of 14 when he was selected to the NCCA U-19 squad. Asked about the challenges of the early years, Shiva paused, thoughtfully, before responding. “I lived in San Jose and after school I would travel for almost two hours by train” to Berkeley to attend practice. Returning home late at night and having to attend school the next day – “it was challenging but also exciting”, he adds. Shiva is also quick to acknowledge and thank, profusely, those who have played a part in his success. “My parents are very supportive.” From them he got his love for the game, and “they never stop encouraging me”. His first coach was Kulwant Virdi until the age of 14… “He taught me the basics of the game”, he says with a sense of gratitude. 
Immaculate Technique - Shiva on his toes and on the go!
After that came coach Owen Graham and Shiva feels, “OG played a big part in shaping my batting style”; teaching him the nuances of the game – “strategy, captaincy, he taught me about that stuff”. Shiva must have been a good student for he demonstrated many of those sterling qualities of leadership 
while captaining the North West Region to the 2009 National championships in New York.
That was the first time that I met Shiva. Even at such an early age, Shiva engenders the feeling of one who has the uncanny ability to unite and to bring the best out of his players – an indispensable quality of leadership. On the field he was a model of composure even after Atlantic Region openers, Singh and Wardley, threatened to run away with the game posting 80 odd at more than 5 runs an over. Shiva calmly stuck to his game plan; rotated his bowlers and succeeded in restricting them to 250. “I knew we had the batting to chase down 250”, he assured me. “Our batsmen”, [Saqib, Suri, Sami, Gautam] – “everybody was brilliant”. It is a measure of both his modesty, as well as his leadership instinct for putting his teammates first, that Shiva did not mention that he himself played an important part in that run chase scoring 43. How did it feel winning the championship? “It was definitely my biggest game”. “It was a long time coming…we were supposed to win in 2008.” Finally winning this year, “it felt really good”, he says with a laugh.
Success at the Nationals was followed by his appointment to lead the national team at the America qualifiers last week in Canada. Although it was expected, Shiva confesses: “I was really happy when I got the news”. He considers it a great honor to lead his country and to captain “such a nice group of guys”.
In Canada, the team successfully earned a berth into the final round of World Cup qualifications to be played later this year in September. To what did he attribute this success, I asked? Before the start of the tournament, the team spent 4 days together in Toronto. “It gave us a chance to get to know each other…that was important”. He thought that every player gave one hundred percent and “we played together as a team”, he proudly boasts. The players were all selected in part because of their strong self-discipline; their commitment and their records; and it showed in their performances. What did he think about newly appointed coach, Sew Shivnarine? “The coach was very professional.” At team meetings, “he gave us a chance to speak and listened to our opinions”. About their sole lost to Canada, Shiva felt that “it was the first time the team had faced pressure” in the tournament. “We did face some pressure against Bermuda too” but it was only about 10 or 12 overs. Against Canada the team was playing for first place and “there was always pressure”. Players got the opportunity to experience, firsthand, just how mentally demanding international cricket can be. What with thrash talking and sledging that, unfortunately, have become a part of the game. But he is confident that they will learn from the experience.
Learn they must and quickly too - these youngsters are an integral part of USA Cricket's plans for World Cup 2015. Still, Shiva’s immediate sights are on the World Cup Qualifiers slated for September with the chance for a place in World Cup 2010. He is a big believer in self discipline where players “take responsibility for their training”. Nevertheless, he believes it is crucial that the team gets a chance to practice together in California before going to Toronto in September. “I hope that happens again because it really helped us the last time”, he recalls.
Away from Cricket, Shiva will be pursuing a degree in psychology at the University of California, Davis. His parents were always supportive of his cricket dreams, but never at the expense of his studies “which always came first”, he says with a joyful laugh.