With cricket as one of the prime force in India as far as sports is concerned and a most coveted sports career parents are in the rat race to make their child a cricketer to earn fame and money. With much hype about the cricketers in India particularly the celebrity status they enjoy and about their eight figure incomes, lifestyle is an alluring thing in today’s context which really pushes parents into the competition. This is not suddenly started as in yesteryears cricketers like Sunil Gavaskar, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri were all household names and their celebrity status were also commonly known to all and many did idolize them as far as their dream of becoming a cricketer is concerned. But this was the picture in the eighties particularly when media hype was not to a great extent, but things have drastically changed and in the nineties and post 2000 cricket has gone through a complete metamorphosis. With the influx of funds and rags to riches stories of some cricketers have really planted the firm belief into everybody’s mind that the ultimate goal in one’s mind for becoming a cricketer.
In earlier times playing cricket was more of a hobby or was reserved to a limited class and there were not many aspirants for becoming a cricketer. But as time changed and the game being immensely popular, it does not remain a common game now but a most sought after sports career. The very fact is evitable by the springing of numerous cricket academies in India, starting from national cricket academy, pace foundation, and the academy started by individual players like Kiran more, Irfan Pathan, Virendra Sehwag which are flocking with young aspirants. Since the entire academy’s motto is ‘catch them young’ children in the age group of 10-15 are the best choice. There comes the role of parents to motivate their children in keeping pace with their studies and playing. Parents are aware that if their children could settle for cricket career things would look really rosy in future. The starting of IPL has furthered the hope of earning huge money more. As playing for the national team remains a distant dream, because of the tough selection and other procedure IPL has surely opened the floodgates for many young aspirants who aspire for cricket as a career. An unknown player who was a son of an auto driver was sold for 1 crore to Sunrisers Hyderabad which they haven’t dreamt of. Likewise many such talented players like Sanju Samson, Manpreet Goni, Abhinav Tare, Risabh pant have all stabilized their career in IPL.
As far as playing in the national team is concerned players can really earn a fortune with the salaries they earn from every matches they play and from the endorsements they do, besides the cricketers are also in the glamour world by the celebrity status they enjoy. All such factors have really prompt the parents to put their children in the rat race of becoming cricketers as it has all right from status, respect and financial benefits. As nowadays playing cricket is more accessible for the mushrooming of new cricket academy’s it does not retain a distance dream for parents anymore and they are giving their all out effort in this competition to make their children cricketers.
By : Niladri Sarkar
