Share
That person is none other than a 29 years old Naga lad, Jonathan Rongsen, a native of Akhoya village in Mokokchung district; Jonathan is an all-rounder, a middle order right-hand bat and right-arm medium pacer. At the very young age, Rongsen left Nagaland when his father went to pursue his PhD in theology in 1997 at Bengaluru.
Jonathan says: “Well, I grew up in Bangalore and I have been in Bangalore for 20 years now. I am playing cricket here for almost 18 years, I started playing cricket when I was in the 4th standard. Cricket was one of my hobbies as a kid growing up in Bangalore.”
He attributes his family, ‘they very supportive in my cricketing career. Without them I can't be where I am today.’ He has changed his name from Jonathan Longkumer to Jonathan Rongsen, using his father’s name ‘Rongsen’ as surname.
He narrates his tale of how he developed his interest on cricket. “When I got selected for my school team, my passion grew towards cricket to become a professional cricketer plus my school gave so much interest in cricket. So while playing for school, I was picket by a club called Karnataka Institute of Cricket that was one of the best cricket club in Bangalore.”
The all-rounder has been playing competitive cricket in Karnataka since 2000. He has also attended specialised coaching camps under the National Cricket Academy.
“From there on I improved my cricket and got selected for junior state for Karnataka and then for Ranji Trophy 50 overs and T/20 format in the year 2009 to 2010, under Rahul Dravid’s captaincy, I never looked back since then.”
He got an offer from the Indian Railways to be employed and to play cricket for the Railways team, so he took the offer and started playing Ranji trophy for Indian Railways.
On his challenge, Jonathan says “the biggest challenge for me was staying alone, away from my family, at the age of 14 years old in Bangalore that was pretty difficult days.”
If not for cricket, Jonathan says that he would have pursued engineering. “My aim was becoming an engineer but then I had to give so much time to cricket that engineering was almost impossible.”
Of all the national cricket players, Jonathan identifies Rahul Dravid as his inspiration. “I like Rahul Dravid, he was my first Ranji Trophy captain and he taught me a lot about cricket.”
On missing out for selection to the national team, he says: “Yes, Robin (Uthappa), (KL) Rahul, we played a lot together but to be fair, they are very good player(s) but somewhere in the road me being from Nagaland, I don't get enough support from the selector(s), but still I haven't given it up on my dream to play for India one day. And I feel all my years of hard work are slowly coming to my benefit, for example being the highest buy for Karnataka Premier League (KPL).”
Jonathan is confident of handling the tag as the highest-priced player in the KPL. “Well I got this big price tag because of my past performance but all I have to do is just be me, how I was playing, how I was as a human being. I never forget where I come from. If I know that I tried my best in whatever I do, then I am a happy man no matter what the results may come.”
When asked why Nagas doesn’t know much about him, Jonathan says “Our Naga people didn’t know much about me playing cricket because I was in other part of India. On the other side, our brother Hokaito plays for Nagaland and Assam that's how Naga people know him, and yes he is a very good player.”
While reporting a Ranji Trophy match that took place at New Delhi on December 8, 2013, the Hindu newspaper described Rongsen as “a stylish batsman with roots in Nagaland. Based in Bangalore with the Rail Wheel Factory, the stocky Jonathan was the lone bright spot on a dull day.”
On the prospects of cricket in Nagaland, Jonathan says that it is slowly coming up which is very good. “Now we have a stadium, a good junior team.” To the youngsters with dreams of being a cricketer, he says: “cricket is for those people who are only interested in cricket and plays only cricket throughout the year and as for me I am always there to teach the young ones.”
