Is the craze for cricket in India justified ? (From playing cricket with mates to getting hired to play for the nation and the leagues.

Birth of a new Religion : Considering the amount of craziness regarding cricket in India, one can easily boil down to a conclusion it being the national game of India, but that’s not the case. This game has gathered such fandom due to the ICC tournament wins, starting from 1983. People are highly passionate about the game and are glued to their TV sets for hours when the Indian team is playing any sort of international fixture, or the IPL (Indian Premier League) is underway.

Cricket is more like a religion and people often consider the cricketers as their role models and often try to enact their playing styles. One can easily conclude it to be the most watched sports in India.

This game can be played even on the streets and the people have termed it as “Gully Cricket”. People feel that what’s the need of a playground if it can be played in local neighbourhood and hence the name “Gully Cricket”. All you need is just one ball and a bat to begin with. Also, the rules are pretty simple to understand.

Overview : This game has become a main source of entertainment across the country, with local tournaments being held in every nook and corner of the country. This helps for the selection of good players at state level and then further to national and international levels.

For one to excel in such a tough and competitive environment, he needs to prove himself at the domestic level (e.g., Ranji Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Irani Cup), the List A Cricket and more so recently, the IPL. All of these platforms helped elevate the standard of Indian Cricket and made it easier for the selectors to filter out the right candidate for the International team.

To get into team India, the first step towards the goal is to play club cricket. When a child grows up with a passion to play cricket, the easiest and most accessible approach to that kid is a local cricket academy connected to a regional cricket association. Promising kids from the clubs go on to play district-level cricket. To get selected in the district-level age cricket, local tournaments are arranged by the cricket associations. Age-group cricket is divided into three categories. The first and the most initial level is the under-13, followed by the under-15 and under-19 team.

Struggling yet being determined : It is not necessary that each and every cricket fanatic kid is privileged to have access to these kinds of resources.  Some have to take the hard way, wherein participating in the local tournaments and outclassing there is the best option. One such example is of Umesh Yadav, he belonged to a lower middle-class family, and had no career options left so his friend persuaded him to play hardball cricket. After outshining there, he landed into the Ranji Team and performed exceptional. This resulted in him earning his India Cap.

It is not easy to achieve this ft. as there is a fierce competition and plenty of kids dream to make it to the Indian team and only a handful succeed. Many have to balance their trainings with their studies due to family pressures. As we know it is pretty common to have a backup option ready in case we fail. This is the main reason why parents pressure their kids to excel in their studies along with the game. And this can be financially drenching at times.

There needs to be a platform where underprivileged and talented youths can showcase their talents and nurture them.

Selection processes : Since a long time, recruiters make use of statistical data and records of any athlete, to check and select any athlete. This is starting to get an old, and it is the need of the hour to update the selection process. There needs to be a platform where in the selection committee could be able to do all this task remotely using videos of the players playing and all their statistics under one platform. Also, one thing that could be added to this is various filters, which would help in sorting the players based on their stats, age, playing type, etc

This would make more heads turn and an easy task for the selection committee. Its not that far in the future when we would be able to see any such kind of technology being used. Until then the traditional methods continue.