Salil Ankola’s cricketing bow began gloriously, debuting in the 1989 Karachi Test with prodigy Sachin Tendulkar versus Pakistan. This express bowler tallied one Test, 20 ODIs, and 1996 World Cup honors before a 28-year-old retirement courtesy of relentless injuries.
He swapped whites for wardrobe, starring in TV hits CID, Kahata Hai Dil, Kora Kagaz, Shssh… Koi Hai. Cinema credits: policing Kurukshetra (2000, Sanjay Dutt), Pitaah, Chura Liya Hai Tumne, Silence Please… The Dressing Room. Big Boss 2006 with Salman Khan rounded his showbiz chapter.
Beneath stardom simmered struggle. Cricket’s exit in 1997 bred despair, igniting a 1999-2011 alcohol abyss. Interviews unveiled a habit turning vicious: non-stop drinking, cricket avoidance, futile rehabs, family heartaches. ‘Awake meant intoxicated,’ he admitted.
Dawn broke in 2011 rehab amid World Cup euphoria, reframing booze as illness. With kin’s embrace and medical might, he vanquished it— weathering 12 ICU ordeals, three clinical demises by 2014. Now hale, Ankola helms cricket as past Mumbai chief selector and Indian panelist to August 2024. His narrative, a gritty epic of grit over gloom, spotlights hope’s unyielding power in sport’s shadowy corners.