From Village Dreams to Mavericks and Mic Drops

When you watch Ajit Brar run in with the ball for the NL Mavericks, you see a player with control, confidence, and that calm edge that only comes with experience. But what you don’t see, unless you know him, is the sacrifice, the sound of Punjabi verses echoing in his head, and a journey that’s anything but everyday story.

Ajit’s cricket dream didn’t start on turf wickets. It started with rubber balls in a small Indian village, where cricket was just a game — not a path. “There was only one academy,” Ajit told me. “It was too far, and my parents were like most Indian parents — they didn’t really see cricket as a future.”

It’s a story many South Asian athletes know too well. Passion often gets benched by practicality.

“I begged them. Eventually my father agreed and took me to an academy,” Ajit said. “But on the way back, we stopped at a relative’s place. He told my father straight — don’t do this. He said cricket’s a rich kid’s sport. Your son won’t make it.”

The dream didn’t die. It just adapted. Ajit kept playing with what he had. He also started writing poetry — quietly, privately. “I showed it once in school. My friends laughed,” he said. “So I stopped showing anyone. But I never stopped writing.”

Years later, it was his married sister who offered him one shot. One year of cricket. One chance.

He trained hard — two years across different academies. But the timing and the odds were stacked against him. “I knew I was too late. I wasn’t good enough to make a living off cricket. I saw what my parents were sacrificing. That’s when I listened to my sister in Canada. She said come here — life will be better.”

And so he moved.

In Canada, the cricket bat took a back seat. Life took over. Studies. Jobs. A new country. But something else lit up inside him — music.

“I used to listen to rap in India, but I couldn’t understand much. In Canada, I really got into it. J. Cole especially — the way he tells stories. That hit me,” Ajit said.

What started as poetry turned into bars. The same passion that once fueled a cricket dream began pouring into rap verses. “I felt something when I listened to hip-hop. I started writing every day. I’m still improving — still got a lot to say.”

And he’s not just saying it — he’s recording it. His music is out there. Punjabi rap, raw and real. He’s not trying to be the next big thing — he’s just being himself. And that’s what makes it work.

After nearly five years away from the game, cricket slowly found its way back into Ajit’s life — not as a goal, but as a joy. When he moved to Newfoundland and Labrador, he met a few guys playing locally. “2021, I played my first season with the Wolves. Then life got busy again. PR stuff, two jobs. Cricket took a back seat.”

Until fate — and a taxi — intervened.

“I met Taran, Mukul, and Rana while driving taxi. They asked me to play for Mavericks. I did — and honestly, it was the best decision I made. The team bonding, the fun… it brought cricket back to life for me.”

That season? They won it all.

Now, Ajit’s playing again — not to chase a contract, not to prove anything, but simply because he loves the game. “Before, I played to become someone. Now, I play to feel something.”

And when he’s not bowling tight spells or sharing laughs with the Mavericks, he’s in the booth, turning pain into poetry, and rhymes into rhythm.

Ajit Brar isn’t just a cricketer. He’s a storyteller — on the field, and in the studio.

🎵 Listen to Ajit Brar on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/track/2C9xEdSxy6wcesbff7O3A0?si=A-3w1nunSeSmMKjbGbaS0A

🎧 Check out his YouTube Channel
https://www.youtube.com/@Streetknights_1