It is perhaps not surprising that the cricketers Fateh Singh specifically mentions as having inspired him growing up both overcame tough times.
India’s Yuvraj Singh reached stellar heights despite having to take time out for cancer treatment, while England’s Moeen Ali made it to the top after growing up on the mean streets of inner-city Birmingham, with all the hurdles that presented.
The up-and-coming Nottinghamshire left-arm spinner would not pretend to have faced adversity on that scale, but the 18-year-old has had to deal with a major challenge of his own, nonetheless.
Back in 2015, in his last year of junior school, he was diagnosed with alopecia, a poorly-understood condition that causes an often complete loss of hair.
“I was in year six at school when it happened,” he said. “To start with, I didn’t really understand what it was because I was so young. But I’ve read up about it since then and it is thought it could be to do with head trauma.
“No one really knows why I got it, but prior to it happening, I’d been messing about playing football at school and I slipped and cracked my head open on a sharp corner of a wall.
“My hair hasn’t grown back. I kept my eyebrows and eyelashes for the first couple of months but they have now gone as well.”
The lack of eyelashes is a particular challenge. They give the eyes natural protection from the glare of the sun and it can be difficult to see in certain conditions, which is why Fateh invariably plays in sunglasses.
Alopecia can have negative psychological consequences for sufferers at any age, especially children, but Fateh - already a promising young cricketer - soon resolved that he would not let it hold him back.
“It was hard, to be honest,” he said. “But quite soon I had the mentality that you have to accept it for what it is. If you don’t accept it, I don’t think you’d ever move on from it personally.”
Fateh’s love of cricket came in part from his father, who founded a Nottingham cricket club called Young Lions, and from the cricket bat one of his brothers gave him when he was two years old.
“He’d been to see India play in Leicester and came back with this bat. When I was given it I immediately held it like you should hold a bat, apparently. After that, I carried a bat and ball with me everywhere and would always be asking people to bowl to me.”
He played softball Kwik Cricket at age five and graduated to hardball games at six. “I had trials for Nottinghamshire’s Under-11s when I was nine and I’ve been there ever since,” he said.
A major influence on his early development was Andrew Jackman, the former Guyana and West Indies B player, to whom he was introduced by a cousin. Jackman has been a well-known figure on the Nottingham club cricket scene since the late 1990s.
“He used to take me to the nets at Trent Bridge and I learned pretty much everything from him,” he said. “It was his idea that I should bowl spin, although I actually trialled for the county as an opening batter and left-arm seamer.
“As a youngster, you just want to run in and bowl as fast as you can so it can be difficult to make the switch, but I took to it quite naturally.”
So naturally, in fact that Nottinghamshire signed him up to their Emerging Players Programme at the age of 15 and he has been rapidly chalking off milestones in the last couple of years.
He played for the county’s Under-18s and Under-19s in 2020 as cricket emerged from lockdown and, after making his Second XI debut in March last year, earned a senior call-up for three matches in the Royal London Cup in August.
This summer, he has been part of the Notts Outlaws team in the 50-over competition right from the start, taking six wickets and scoring some handy runs to boot, including an eye-catching 45 from just 22 balls against Middlesex at Grantham.
“This season I’ve felt like I’ve had a role in the team and I’m pleased with the way I’ve responded to pressure,” he said.
“I was happy with my economy last season and I was a bit unlucky not to get any wickets. The first time I bowled, against Glamorgan, I had a catch go down at slip and a missed stumping!
“I’ve gone for a few more runs this time but I’ve taken some wickets, and I feel I’ve bowled better. And with the bat I’ve come in when we’ve needed to get the score moving and I’ve been able to get a few runs.”
The experience has been invaluable, allowing him to play alongside his fellow left-arm spinner, Liam Patterson-White, who broke into the senior side in 2019, and to work with Nottinghamshire’s lead spin bowling coach, the vastly experienced Ant Botha.
“I haven’t spent massive amounts of time with Ant but the little time I have been with him has always been eye-opening and effective,” he said.
“Liam is a slightly different kind of bowler from me but he’s been great in helping with the mental side of things and is sharing the experience of what it was like for him coming into the team.
“And he is showing with the way his career is going, making his England Lions debut the other week and being talked about for the senior England team, just how quickly you can progress.”
Fateh has his own ambitions but, having only just finished his A-levels, is not looking too far ahead.
“I’ve got the grades to go to university, to do sports science and physiotherapy, but I’m going to take a gap year and concentrate on my cricket for now,” he said.
“Like any young player I have my goals, but at the same time I think it is important to stay in the present.”
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