CBSE Topper 2023: A ‘freak accident’ helped this budding cricketer top his school in Class 12 humanities

NEW DELHI: Uday Verdi Jain has scored the top marks in humanities at the Sanskriti School Chanakyapuri, Delhi. The Central Board of Secondary Education declared the CBSE Class 12 results on Friday and Jain was “surprised” to discover he had scored 98% and was the school CBSE Class 12 topper for humanities. He attributes at least a part of this achievement to a “freak accident” back in July 2022.

Jain is a fast bowling allrounder who was on the standby for the Delhi cricket team and was about to attend the final trials of the under-19 state selection. The CBSE exams and results weren’t exactly a priority until misfortune struck and he twisted his knee while playing football at school.

The 17-year-old then had to undergo an operation on his knee six days before his first-term examination. Jain couldn’t write the exams as he was bedridden for most of September. It took him seven months to completely recover. “It was quite tough because cricket was the only thing I've truly worked for to be honest. I know it sounds a bit strange but I think I got these marks because I didn’t know what to do at the time and I was studying more to distract myself,” said Jain.

“Throughout school, I was conditioned to keep in mind that I had to study for my board exams. I thought it was a good way to keep myself distracted because in the initial three months you are sort of preoccupied with your rehab. After that I was fit to play but the ligament was not fit for impact. Because I was practising for under 19 selections, college was never really in my scheme of things. I was very much reliant on a sports quota admission and since I couldn’t play this was probably the only thing I could do,” said Jain.

The CBSE has not declared an all-India list of toppers. The CBSE result statistics show that it’s been a disappointing year in general – pass percentage has dropped by over five points in CBSE 12th results; the number of students scoring above 90% has declined by over 30,000. However, schools have their CBSE toppers like they have always had.

CBSE Topper 2023: ‘Maths and cricket are similar’

Jain has scored 100 percent in political science, 98 percent each in economics and psychology, and 97 percent in English and maths.

“I pretty much followed the same routine every day. I woke up at 8 am. Studied for three hours. Then I used to go to my grandfather’s house, have lunch with him, and then study on his rooftop from 1 pm to 6 pm. Then I practised in the makeshift net there for about one and a half hours, then I studied again till 11 pm,” said Jain.

“At night, I only used to study maths. I find maths and cricket very similar in that if you keep at it, it eventually becomes some sort of an unhealthy obsession,” he said.

Jain considers his results a “surprise” as his past results were not much to write home about. He scored 90 percent in CBSE Class 10 results and around 83 percent in Class 11.

His aim was to get into a good college through the sport quota so that he can focus on his cricket.

Class 12 Topper 2023: ‘I’m going to focus on cricket’

“I started playing cricket when I was five years old. At the age of seven, I started going to RP cricket academy in Gargi College. At 11, I moved to Safdarjung Club. I was there for about a year and a half. After that I went to JMC College club for a bit, then after 2020, I joined Players’ Cricket Academy in Saket,” said Jain.

“I have been on the standby in under 14, under 16 was ruled out because of covid-19. And under 19, I was shortlisted for the selection trials in which 90 odd players played against each other. The first league happened in June, I was the second highest wicket taker in Delhi in that. Next one was pretty much the last trials which happened in August but I had to withdraw from that,” said Jain.

However, being the topper does not change Jain’s plans. “I’m going to focus on cricket, at least for the next two years,” he said.

Jain started his practice the day he was allowed to, a week after he wrote his last CBSE board exams. He did not miss cricket practice even on the day he learnt he was the CBSE Class 12 topper in humanities of his school.