South Africa’s great Daryll Cullinan, who recently showed concern for the 15-year-old Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, has once again opined on the limelight he is getting at the moment. The southpaw can’t do many things in life, like driving or taking part in the voting process, but his call for inclusion in India’s playing XI continues to grow. He is already a part of the national squad, but the team management hasn’t shown any interest in placing him on the field. India captain Shreyas Iyer and head coach Gautam Gambhir are under pressure after losing two T20Is against Ireland, with many questioning their decisions. The support staff wants everyone to wait before Sooryavanshi is handed his India cap.

The hype could impact the batter and limit his career. Cullinan is not in favour of either, and he feels the player can play for 20 to 25 years, but there is a need to help and protect him.

“What we are seeing in Vaibhav Sooryavanshi is not simply a talented boy playing above his age. It is something cricket has genuinely never had to deal with before – namely, a child placed at the centre of one of the most commercially powerful, globally visible and socially amplified sporting environments ever created: Indian cricket and the IPL. Cricket has seen prodigies. It has seen young players arrive early and carry labels they did not ask for. But it has not seen this precise combination before, of innocence, extraordinary gift, and a social media world that has abolished nearly every distance between a child and the opinions of hundreds of millions. Sooryavanshi is 15, living a life that is not proceeding at the ordinary pace of growing up. This needs careful consideration before it is too late,” Cullinan wrote for Cricinfo.

“In my view, he should be at home preparing for his exams, playing gully cricket with his mates, and being a young boy while he still has the chance. That does not mean ignoring his talent. It means understanding that the talent will only be truly served if the person carrying it is allowed to grow whole.”

Over the years, many young players impressed, but only a few were able to carry on. A cricketer like Prithvi Shaw was expected to do great things, but he faded away after failing to handle the stardom. Sooryavanshi is being compared with Sachin Tendulkar.

“Sooryavanshi’s door has closed very early. His identity has been decided for him by his own gift, the most involuntary thing a person can possess, before he has had much chance to explore alternatives. That is the quiet sadness beneath all the celebration,” Cullinan added.

“Greatness at 15 does not wait politely while the person catches up. It sets a frame. It fixes an image in the public mind. Everything that follows, the mistakes, the growing up, the confusion, the disappointment, the ordinary human work of becoming yourself, has to happen inside that frame. The boy becomes the legend before he has had the chance simply to become a man.”

The former South African cricketer wants to see Sooryavanshi enjoying a long career and even break Tendulkar’s records. Cullinan believes Sooryavanshi should get in touch with the Master Blaster, who handled everything that came his way with perfection.

“What we should hope for is that he retires at 40 and not washed up at 25. That’s another 25 years of him! We should hope that his talent becomes something he inhabits on his own terms, rather than something that inhabits him. We should hope there are still parts of his life in which he can be ordinary and unobserved, in which he can fail quietly, laugh freely, finish his studies, play without a camera nearby, and digest all of what’s happening, in the quietness of his home and among his family and friends. The best chance of that happening is in the next three years. They should be about him, not cricket. Is that too much to ask?” he wrote.

“It is my sincere hope that he will turn to Tendulkar for guidance. He could not be more lucky than to have a mentor in a fellow Indian cricketer who has been through it all and seen it all, and who will have his best interests at heart.”