Taking Cricket as a Career in India – Pros & Cons

                            Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

Cricket as a sport is one of the most loved games across entire South Asia including India. Cricket was introduced in India by the British. It was considered as a gentlemen’s game and played by only rich and elite.  Post India’s independence, Cricket has surpassed any other sports in the country in popularity and fan-following. Now the game is so popular that it has become the game of masses.

Historically, most of the sports including Cricket were merely considered as a source of recreation and entertainment by the people of India. Cricket as a career was never viewed as an option by youngsters & their families. Further, it was tougher to be selected as a part of national cricket team, given the intense competition for the limited number of positions available in the team. The parents always wanted their Children to study and take up careers like administration, banking, engineers, doctors etc to mention a few.

However, now the times have changed slowly but significantly. Given the commercialization of sports, there are much wider and better options available in cricket for the youngsters. The fame, money and career options are not just limited to the players of national cricket team. The new cricket formats like Indian Premier League (IPL) etc have widened the scope of the game and have provided newer opportunities of career advancement for more & more youths (even if they are not part of national cricket team).

Given the new opportunities burgeoning in this space, cricket has surely become a lucrative career option for today’s youth. Let us look at various aspects of the game that has changed over time and has impacted the thought process of the youth to take cricket as a career for them.

The Pros

Changing mindset towards Sports as a career - The mindset for Sports as a career has changed for good. The parents are no longer inclined only towards academics (& related fields) for building a career. Rather, now the focus has shifted towards individual’s passions and interests.  Fields like sports, arts, vocations etc have become viable career options for consideration.

Rising opportunities – There was a time when opportunities in cricket were very limited. The players who couldn’t make it to the national team were considered a failure and had a career full of struggles. Now the situation has changed. Due to the advent of new formats (like T-20 cricket) and new tournaments (like IPL), the opportunities in cricket has multiplied. There are so many cricketers like Rishabh Pant, Chahal, Bumrah, Samson etc who have risen to the ranks of national team mainly through platforms like IPL.

More career and fall-back options – Playing professional cricket is not the only option available for the youngsters. Once a person has prepared to become a professional cricketer, even if he is not very successful in professional cricket he can look at alternate career options within cricketing arena (like becoming Umpire, Commentator, Physiotherapist, Support Staff, Manager, Coordinator etc) for various professional teams at franchise, state, national and international level. Additionally, a professional player may become a coach by opening a private academy or decide to work in schools/colleges as cricket coach. The options are diverse.

The Cons

Intense competition – With India having population of 1.3 billion and everyone so passionate about the game, there is no doubt that one has to face intense competition to become professional cricketer in India. Obviously some youngsters still make it to the top but it is not easy at all. There will be challenges along the way even if you are highly talented.

Need to have a God-father – Just like for film industry, it is also being said for cricket that one needs support from a God-father to be selected at the top-most levels (national level) in cricket. However, given the rising number of opportunities this is of lesser importance since you still need to showcase talent, hard work and passion to reach to middle levels (state/franchise level).    

Subjective selection criteria – The selection criteria of cricketers for the higher level is considered subjective and lacking fair processes to measure a player’s performance. There could be many factors impacting the performance of a player (like strength of opposition team, type of pitch etc). Apart from the performance, players also need to aware about the importance of being on top of the mind of media and selectors.

Quality of cricket infrastructure – Ever after so much attention on cricket, the cricket infrastructure in India is not yet fully modernized and competitive. Most of the cricket pitches in India are flat and batsman friendly. These pitches are unfair for the bowlers as they are not able to perform to the best of their potential. The best performing batsmen on Indian pitches fail to impress on fast pitches in many other countries. This is high time for Indian cricket authorities to focus on cricket infrastructure for training & identifying best talent for the country.  

For taking cricket as a career, one needs to be really passionate about it. If one is passionate enough, then he need not worry about making a successful career in this game as there will be enough opportunities available for him. Just make a plan and keep on giving your best.