HOW TO BECOME A CRICKETER IN INDIA ? EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW IF YOU ARE AN ASPIRING CRICKETER

 Everyone knows that cricket is a very competitive sport and It's not very easy to get into the national team. 

But nowadays getting into the national team or IPL is not the only success. Getting into Senior state teams like Ranji and Duleep trophy team can help you build a good lifestyle and it may even help you to become a Government servant. 

 In this article, I am going to discuss the different levels you need to pass in order to accomplish your goal. But you must know that there is no well-defined path to become a cricketer. Even people who have joined the club cricket during their 20's may get successful easily than people who have started their career at a very young age.

1.HOME: YOUR ACADEMY

Learning the basics of cricket from your home helps you a lot. First, you must learn rules and jargons( terms like offside, onside, etc) used while playing cricket. Then you must start learning the basics of batting and bowling like how to grip the bat, how to have a perfect stance, how to grip a bowl, bowling action, and then you must proceed to learn how to play drives, defenses. and in bowling at least you must learn how to bowl without chucking.

Nowadays it's not very difficult to learn cricket from home. YouTube can help you a lot. Joining an academy or club after learning basics improve your confidence. I have noticed that many people abstain from joining an academy due to a lack of confidence because they feel that they don't know anything about professional cricket and think that will they be able to play this sport professionally.

2. JOIN A CRICKET ACADEMY/CLUB

Joining an academy /club will make your journey easier. In clubs, there will be people to guide you through the right path and they can help you find the right opportunities.

Join the club nearest to your residence. and don't spend huge time traveling to the best academy, because you know that great coaches do not create great players. It's a great player who makes a coach great. and you must understand that coaches can only guide you they can't make you a player. Joining a club not too far from home will help you to focus more on cricket and also help you to spend adequate time for studies

You must spend more time making the base strong. Especially if you are trying to become a fast bowler, simply bowling 10 -15 overs a day will not improve your bowling. You need to do focused training on wrist movement, shoulder strength, Runup, etc

3.FITNESS AND NUTRITION

Building strength and fitness is the best way to grow your career exponentially. If you can build your body like Virat or Cristiano then you can have a great advantage over all other competitors like they have in their respective sport. This is not impossible but it takes a lot of hard work. If you can do that then you will be able to outperform 97 percent of your competitors because only people who have such a love for the sport will put in that much effort.

Having good leg strength will help you to have a good balance and coordination while batting and you will be able to do great dive catches and you will be able to run between the wickets like Kohli and MSD.leg strength is also important for fast bowlers it will improve their speed by having a good runup, stable front foot landing, etc

Having good upper body strength will help batsmen to control bat like a feather and will also improve their total coordination. It will help them to play drive shots with lots of power like Dhoni.

4.COURSE AND COLLEGE SELECTION

This is an important decision you want to make. You mustn't take the science stream after class 10 because if you opt for science then you will not get enough time to practice and you will need to spend more time for studies and the hectic school schedule will also affect your career.

After class 12 you must choose a college which has a good cricket team and cricketing facilities. This will help you to get into the University team. Performing well in University games will also give you a window to the state team.

 5.BUILDING THE RIGHT MINDSET

You must have a mindset to work like Kohli and Cristiano, both of them not had any in-born talents. But they worked very hard to achieve that level of success. It will be difficult for you to work hard during the beginning of your journey but consistent work will help you fall in love with workouts and practice and will ultimately help you to reach your goal.

Believe in yourself: Even if everyone around you is a better player then you don't lose your heart. Through hard work, you can beat any born talent. And you must know that every expert was once a beginner.

6.GETTING INTO DISTRICT TEAMS OR SENIOR TEAM IN YOUR CLUB

 If you are a person below the age of 23 then you can attend district team selection trials and if you get selected you can play for your district and playing well at this level will help you to reach the state team and playing well in those teams can lead you to the senior state team 

If you were not able to get into district teams and if you are above 23 years then you can get into the senior team in your club and can play club cricket and playing well at this level will help you to get the attention of the state team selectors.

7.IPL or NATION TEAM

If you have managed to play in the state team for 2-5 years then you have made it into the safe zone. It's a safe zone because there is a chance that you get a government job and players who have played more than 8 matches in the Ranji trophy are eligible for pension and If you want you can earn more by conducting cricket coaching classes, at this level you are financially secured and can continue pursuing your passion without worrying about your economic condition

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The next level is to perform consistently and to get the attention of the national team or IPL team selectors. At this level scoring runs and taking wickets is very important.

If you are not able to get the attention of selectors doesn't worry. You can also attend the IPL team selection trials which is also a window to the top-level cricket 

SUMMARY

1.Home your academy

2.Join a cricket academy/club

3.Fitness and nutrition

4.Course and college selection

5.Building the right mindset

6.Getting into district team or senior team in a club 

7.Ipl or national team

FINAL THOUGHTS

You may have read all the points in this article but knowing all these things is not enough for you to become successful. Your success is depended on how you understand these things and how apply these things in your life.

Cricket is a sport with huge competition and getting success is very difficult. But it is not impossible for anyone because even though there are some cricketers in the Indian team who were born to be a player but most of them were once a common man like you. It is their dream and smart work that helped them to reach this level of success. 

But one last thing I wish to tell you is that becoming a member of men in blue is not the only way to have a successful career in cricket there are numerous opportunities in cricket like being a coach, pitch curator, umpire, ground manager, team manager, coaching staff, becoming a state team player, etc. Even though all these may be these professions cannot make you famous and rich but if you really love cricket then I strongly believe that earning an average revenue by doing something you love will make your life colourful