The switch hit: Tristan Stubbs’ journey from hockey star to cricket sensation | Cricket News

Tristan Stubbs (PTI Photo)

NEW DELHI: If Tristan Stubbs wasn’t sending bowlers into the stands together with his brute energy, the 24-year-old may need been executing push passes, flicks, or drag flicks on the hockey turf. Had he not chosen cricket, Stubbs would possible have pursued a profession in hockey – following in his father’s footsteps.
Tristan’s father Chris Stubbs was a widely known identify in South Africa’s hockey circuit. A former provincial participant, Chris by no means obtained the possibility to characterize the nationwide group. Despite that, he by no means discouraged his son from selecting cricket over hockey.
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In truth, Tristan started his sporting journey with hockey, however the attract of fame and monetary stability finally grew to become key causes for Chris to information him in direction of the gentleman’s recreation. Having skilled the struggles and limitations of a hockey profession firsthand, Chris didn’t need his son to face the identical hurdles.

Tristan grew up watching his father dominate with a hockey stick, and naturally picked up the game. But over time, Chris regularly nudged him in direction of cricket — a transfer that may form his future.
“There’s no money in hockey. Hockey is hard work and it’s fun, but it’s not a career,” mentioned Chris, who was watching his son follow from the stands forward of the Delhi Capitals vs Rajasthan Royals conflict on the Arun Jaitley Stadium, in an unique interview with TimesofIndia.com. Tristian performs for Delhi Capitals within the IPL 2025.
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Chris nonetheless regrets not making it to the senior nationwide group, however one milestone he proudly checked off was taking part in in opposition to India.

“I played provincial hockey, but I wasn’t good enough to play for South Africa. One of my biggest games was against India. They came to South Africa in the ’90s, when they first came back — when we came out of isolation in ’92. I played for Southern Transvaal and played against India. Southern Transvaal were quite a good team in South Africa. It was a warm-up game. And then, when they came on their tour to play against South Africa, they played a warm-up game. They played a game against Southern Transvaal.
“India crushed us 5-0,” Chris said with a big laugh.
The dream of representing his country remained unfulfilled for Chris, but he hoped his son Tristan would go further — wearing the national jersey with the country’s flag proudly on his chest.

HOW HOCKEY HELPED TRISTIAN STUBBS

Chris wanted his son to begin his journey with hockey — to build strength, timing, and ball control — and then channel that same brute power and hand-eye coordination into cricket.

And that’s precisely what Tristan is doing now. He’s develop into a nightmare for bowlers throughout the globe.
Stubbs walks in, picks the size in a flash, and sends the ball hovering into the stands. Pulls, sweeps, reverse sweeps, scoops, paddle sweeps, straight drives — you identify it, they’re all in his arsenal.

“Obviously, he all the time wished to play cricket. Hockey was by no means actually a factor. He performed hockey as a result of he beloved it, however he beloved cricket as nicely. So he wished to, you already know, mainly go to college to try to play cricket — to try to play provincial cricket — and that was his essential purpose: to play cricket. Hockey was simply to preserve match and have enjoyable. He loved hockey, and he was good at it, however he actually wished to play cricket from an early age,” Chris said.
“Playing each hockey and cricket helped him quite a bit. Some of his sweep pictures clearly got here from his reverse sticks. His reverse pictures come from hockey. He was all the time on the aspect of the sphere once we performed, and he grew up with a hockey stick in a single hand and a ball within the different — he all the time had a ball in his hand,” Chris added.