When Chayank “Cheeky” Gosain headed out to Australia for a winter playing cricket with Adelaide’s Goodwood club it was expected the experience would enable him to take the final step through the ranks of Scotland under-17, under-19 and “A” team to a full international cap.
Instead fate played a hand and put the slow left arm bowler, from Edinburgh’s Carlton club and a product of Boroughmuir High School, on a different sporting course and one which will see him take up a job as a surfing coach later this month in, er, Nicaragua.
“Cheeky” said: “I wanted to visit Australia and play cricket but Covid hit and I found myself needing to get outside and do something.
“A club-mate suggested surfing and from the moment I was hit by my first big wave I was hooked.
“I wouldn’t thank you for being hit hard by someone like (Aussie fast bowler) Mitchell Johnson but surviving a massive wave, wow, it was exhilarating.”
From that hit onwards cricket took a back seat – “changing my sporting priorities was easier than I thought as you have to finish sometime; I just gave up on international honours a bit quicker than most.”
“When I returned to the UK to do a Masters (he already has a degree in electrical engineering) I found Edinburgh University had a Surf Club and a job move to Bristol put me in touch with one of the best inland facilities until the new Lost Shore Resort is completed at Ratho.”
“Cheeky” was up and running opting out of mainstream employment to work as a “surf host” in places like Sri Lanka, Sweden and Portugal before it was suggested by his boss at internationally recognised Lapoint Surf Camps that he travel to Norway to complete coaching qualifications.
“Any sport I have ever played (he once helped reduce India’s vaunted under-19’s to 22-5 with a three wicket haul and at domestic level helped steer Carlton to a first ever Scottish Cup in 2017 with an unexpectedly defiant innings of 30 for a bowler) has been competitive.
“Surfing is different; its about challenging myself and I love it.
“Maybe one day I’ll get what my parents would call a ‘proper job’ but for the moment my future is in surfing with the offer of a job back in Portugal when the dry season ends in Central America where Nicaragua which is actually a surfing hot spot” added the 28-year-old who also holds a MSc in Sustainable Energy Systems.”
Talk above riding a wave…
Evergreen sports journalist. Previously published in many publications around the world. Send me your local sports stories. billlothian1008@gmail.com
