The speaker shares their insights on how to become a professional cricketer, from the basics to reaching the international level. They emphasize the importance of hard work, dedication, and focus on cricket. Here's a step-by-step guide:
1. Join a cricket academy to learn the basics from a coach.
2. Practice regularly, focusing on quality over quantity.
3. Participate in practice matches to gauge your potential and identify areas for improvement.
4. Join a club or league match, following the procedures specific to your state.
5. Perform well in district-level matches to get selected for the state team.
6. Represent your state and get nominated for the Under-19 India team or the National Cricket Academy (NCA).
7. Participate in domestic tournaments and get noticed by selectors.
8. Perform well in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and get selected for the Indian national team.
The speaker stresses that the journey to becoming a professional cricketer can take 5-10 years or more, depending on individual performance. They also caution that pursuing cricket requires a willingness to sacrifice everything else in life.
Here are the key facts extracted from the text:
1. To become a cricketer, one needs to work hard for many years.
2. Joining a cricket academy is the first step to becoming a cricketer.
3. In a cricket academy, coaches teach basic things about cricket.
4. One should focus only on cricket while in a cricket academy.
5. After practicing for a few days in an academy, one gets to play practice matches.
6. Practice matches help one to know their potential and weaknesses.
7. Resting one day a week is essential to avoid injury.
8. To become the top player, one should focus on quality rather than quantity.
9. With experience of around 20-30 practice matches and good performance, one gets the opportunity to join a club or play league matches.
10. Different states have different procedures for selecting players for league matches or club matches.
11. If selected for sub-district matches, one needs to perform well to move to the next level.
12. If one performs well in district-level matches, they get a place in the main team of the district level.
13. From the district level, one can move to the state team if their performance is good.
14. Around 45 children from all district teams are selected for the state camp.
15. A fitness test and trial match are conducted to select 15 players for the state team.
16. Players who perform well in the state team can participate in special tournaments.
17. Players under 19 years old can be nominated for the Under-19 India team.
18. Representing the state team can lead to admission to the National Cricket Academy (NCA).
19. Domestic tournaments like Ranji Trophy, Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy, and Vijay Hazare Trophy are important for players to get noticed by selectors.
20. Performing well in domestic tournaments can lead to nomination for the IPL auction.
21. The time it takes to reach the Indian team depends on individual performance and can vary from 5 to 10 years or more.
22. To be successful in cricket, one needs to be ready to lose everything and focus only on cricket.