Rahul Dravid praises India's grassroots system for emergence in Cricket on the global map. BCCI played a huge role in investment in right direction and identifying the right talent.
The former India coach Rahul Dravid recently praised India’s grassroots system for the country to emerge as a strong cricketing force. He told PTI that “one of the big reasons for that is that talent comes from everywhere, from all over the country.” Earlier, talented cricketers used to come from a few big cities or states only, and “even if there were talented boys in smaller places, they had to come to the big cities to play cricket,” Dravid said. But this is not the case anymore.
Levels of Cricket
Cities, age-groups and more
Cricket is not restricted to a few big cities or states. A lot of credit goes to the BCCI for making cricket accessible to tier 1 and 2 cities where club cricket has become robust now. Talented players are coming from smaller cities, and taking up the sport as a profession. The robust Under-14, Under-16, and Under-19 cricket in India has also helped unearth talented players who have gone to play for India. Players such as Shikhar Dhawan, Yuvraj Singh, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja are all products of under-19 age group cricket. BCCI has taken a lot of efforts to promote age group cricket and it has helped India find talented players who have brought laurels for India.
Dravid also mentioned the emergence of talented cricketers coming from smaller cities that has made domestic cricket in India extremely competitive and raised the standards of the sport at this level. Earlier, Mumbai were the invincible team who dominated the Ranji Trophy. But now, they are no longer the invincible team. Any side now have the quality to win this premier domestic tournament, thanks to the abundance of talent coming from the smaller cities and taking part in the tournament.
Schools, League and Corporates
The nurturing of school cricket by BCCI has also helped find talent in its raw stage and further sharpening them out in age-group cricket. The likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Vinod Kambli, and Dravid are all products of school cricket. With schools giving prominence to inter-school championships, cricketers take this tournament as a stepping stone to professional cricket, state and finally nationals. Now, dreaming of playing for India is no laughing stock.
Also, thanks to the popularity of IPL, it has led to the emergence of IPL-like concept tournaments in cities where teams are made on the basis of culture, regions and ethnicity. So, there are Gujarati Premier Leagues happening across cities in India among the Gujaratis. Such tournaments not only give a platform to local players to showcase their talent, but also help them earn a few quick bucks.
Even corporates have a role to play for cricket to develop at every nook and corner of India. Corporates have their own teams who compete in corporate leagues. Some companies even give employment to domestic professional cricketers to represent their group in tournaments. Overall, it is a win-win situation for all parties with Cricket emerging as the biggest winner in the end.
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