Who is Onkar Tarmale? SRH cricketer whose father took loan from Mahila Bachat Gat to fund son's cricket

They say that behind every successful man is a woman. But in Onkar Tarmale's case, there are a bunch of women, who aided him with an INR 3 lakh rupee loan to fund his visit to Tripura for going a level higher in his cricket. The financial help is now reaping multifold rewards, as Onkar, a young cricketer from a small village of Shere in Thane's Shahapur, has been bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad at the IPL 2026 Auction.

Omkar's father Tukaram Tarmale reiterated the hard yards the entire family and the people cheering him from behind the curtains had to undergo in order to see their favourite make it big in cricket. Tarmale's name came in the accelerated round as an uncapped pace bowler and SRH co-owner Kavya Maran raised her paddle at the right time to buy the youngster for INR 30 lakh, leading to the family erupting in joy and celebrations.

"He used to play all around, and also went to Delhi. My financial condition had deteriorated, but I had to send Onkar to Tripura. Coincidentally, I asked for the local women, who had a self-help group, to give me 3 lakh rupees, and with that money, we were able to send Onkar. There, he gave a top-level performance, so the coaches in Tripura asked if I could handover Onkar to them and they would nurture him further, but I clearly said 'no'," Tukaram was heard saying in a viral video.

"I asked the local coaches I know in Kalyan. They told me that my son has guts to make it very big in cricket. He then switched to Mumbai and was doing to-and-from from Tripura. But for a Maharashtra Premier League, he took a flight in a jiffy, and that's where his career really took off," Tukaram added.

The father-son duo went through financial hardships and that is when the father passed on his learnings to his younger one that he should focus on becoming someone big by working very hard. Onkar took the learning like anything, and went on to prove his mettle in the domestic circuit, away from the limelight, but that did not go unnoticed, as SRH valued his talent to earn him an IPL contract.

"He has also worked very hard on his cricket. I always used to advise him that you should focus on your career so much that your son won't have to work as hard as we have been. And today, Onkar has paid off for all our sacrfices and hard work, so I am very happy. That's all I wish to say," the father concluded.

SRH squad for IPL 2026: Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, Brydon Carse, Eshan Malinga, Harsh Dubey, Harshal Patel, Heinrich Klaasen, Ishan Kishan, Jaydev Unadkat, Kamindu Mendis, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Pat Cummins, R Smaran, Travis Head, Zeeshan Ansari, Shivang Kumar, Sakib Hussain, Salil Arora, Onkar Tarmale, Amit Kumar, Liam Livingstone, Shivam Mavi, Jack Edwards