Mother’s Day 2026: Cricket is not just a sport in India, but a religion that has a lot of practitioners. While millions of fans cheer for their favourite batters and bowlers, they do not realise the exceptional sacrifice. Most of the time, this sacrifice comes from the mothers of these cricketers. Many sacrifice their time and wake up in the early hours of the day to travel with their sons and daughters to the cricket field. Unfortunately, for two of the biggest players that have come from India, Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli, their fathers passed away early in their career. Both Rajni Tendulkar and Saroj Kohli made the ultimate sacrifice to guide their sons to a path of greatness.
Mother’s Day 2026: Sachin Tendulkar and Rajni Tendulkar
The “God of Cricket,” Sachin Tendulkar, frequently gave his mother, Rajni Tendulkar, credit for teaching him self-control and humility. His mother made sure he remained grounded, striking a balance between fame and family values, while his father supported his desire.
Sachin Tendulkar, while wishing his mother, Rajni on Mother’s Day in 2025, took to Instagram to share a post with family. He captioned the post, “Everything I am started with her prayers and her strength. My Aai has always been my anchor.”
Sachin has often talked about how, when he used to bat, his mother would not watch him and instead would keep praying to god for his success on the field. Despite Sachin playing so many games, it was only his final test at Wankhede Stadium, which his mother Rajni attended.
Happy Mother’s Day 2026: Virat Kohli and Saroj Kohli
After his father passed away, Virat Kohli talked about how his mother, Saroj Kohli, was his rock. Her fortitude and silent encouragement enabled him to turn his sorrow into resolve, which ultimately made him one of India’s most formidable cricketers. While Kohli and his wife Anushka Sharma stay in London with their kids, his mother stays in Gurgaon. Recently, after becoming the fastest player to score 28,000 runs across formats, Kohli talked about how he sends all his trophies to his mother. Having won numerous player of the match awards and other individual accolades, he was asked where he keeps his trophies, to which Kohli replied and said, “Yeah, she (his mother) likes keeping all the trophies.”
Mother’s Day: Mithali Raj and Leela Raj
There are tales of mothers who challenged social standards in Indian women’s cricket as well. At a period when there were few opportunities for women to play cricket, Mithali Raj’s mother, Leela Raj, pushed her daughter to pursue the sport. Talking about her daughter, Leela made it clear how Mithali had worked hard to reach the immense heights in her career because of her hard work. Like every mother, Leela did not take any credit on Mithali’s success and credited her daughter’s focus in helping her achieve unsurmountable heights in her career. Leela, while talking about Mithali after her retirement from international cricket, said, “To put it in one word, Mithali has been a ‘builder’. She built her career with a lot of focus and dedication. Cricket was nowhere in her life as it just came to her but she worked hard and built it brick by brick. Every player works hard, but Mithali has immense focus. She never wavered from her goals.”
Happy Mother’s Day: Rohit Sharma and Purnima Sharma
Like other cricketers, Rohit Sharma too has been vocal about the sacrifices and the role of his mother, Purnima Sharma, in helping him in his career. The former Indian skipper has often talked about how, despite spending most of his time with his uncle and aunt in Borivali early in his career, the amount of hard work put in by both his parents helped him reach where he is today. Last year on Mother’s Day, Rohit Sharma wished his mother and his wife, Ritika Sajdeha, who is a mother of two children. Taking to Instagram, Rohit posted a photo with a caption that read, “Happy Mother’s Day. To the ones who made the world our happy place.”
Pragun is a passionate cricket follower and writer who deeply loves the game. Having completed his education with a degree in Journalism and Mass Communication, he has an experience of almost two years in diverse fields. He is known for his statistical and analytical articles. Pragun tries to bring life to his articles by adding a layer of enthusiasm from the perspective of a hardcore fan. Apart from writing cricket articles, he sometimes appears on YouTube videos on a friend’s podcast.
