Salman reveals why he didn’t become a cricketer like his father wanted

Superstar Salman Khan recently admitted that his father Salim Khan wanted to see him play cricket for the country.

Salman, who played a wrestler in his latest film ‘Sultan’, said former Indian cricketer Salim Durani was hired as his coach and he told his father that the actor had a bright future in cricket.

“My dad wanted me to play cricket. That could have happened easily but I just didn’t see myself going for cricket practice at 5:30 in the morning. This life is as it is difficult for me, cricket would have been very difficult,” Salman said.

The actor was speaking at the launch of tennis star Sania Mirza’s autobiography Ace Against Odds, on Sunday evening. The Bajrangi Bhaijaan star said he used to play cricket fairly well but the day his father came to see him, he intentionally gave a ‘bad performance’.

“Salim Durani was hired to be my coach. First day, he saw me play, I played very well. Second day, I did really well so he called my father the third day and said your son has got a very bright future. That is the day I realised, my father came to see me play.. so I should play really badly,” the 50-year-old actor said.

The actor also candidly confessed that he barely managed to reach school on time, so waking up early for cricket practise was next to impossible. “Reaching school used to be a big problem itself. At 9 ,I used to attend my first lecture. So I used to wake up at about 8:30 AM and barely manage to reach school on time. Now before school, it was this… I actually wanted to be a director.”

Salman, who gave one of his career best performances in ‘Sultan’, is all set to make his Marathi debut with ‘Shivaji’, produced by Ritesh Deshmukh.