Even as the world celebrated his under-19 victory, Arjun returned to Guntur with plans far beyond cricket.
He had observed, for years, the hidden currents of influence in his hometown:
Market dynamics
Logistics and supply chains
Local politics and networks of trust
Small-scale media influence
He realized that these were small pieces of a larger game. Cricket taught him discipline, timing, and observation. Business and influence taught him leverage, risk, and control. Both were inseparable.
Arjun began cataloging opportunities quietly:
Local businesses that could be expanded or merged into networks
Early investments in communication, transport, and media
Patterns of influence among politicians, journalists, and sports administrators
Even Sid's rivalry became a lesson in psychology and leverage. Every aggressive attempt by Sid to challenge him was data—predictable, measurable, and manipulable.
By the time Arjun was seventeen-and-a-half, he understood a fundamental truth: the same principles that controlled cricket matches could control cities, industries, and eventually, entire networks.
He sat in his room in Guntur, notebook open, pen moving faster than most could follow. Cricket strategies, business maps, influence networks—all intertwined. He was no longer just the Devil of the cricket pitch. He was a strategist, a visionary, a silent orchestrator of events beyond his immediate surroundings.
And somewhere in the quiet streets of Guntur, he smiled faintly.
The pitch is just the beginning. Everything else will follow.