Srinagar, Oct 19: Over the past couple of years, there has been a massive push to the sports infrastructure and activities in Jammu and Kashmir that has provided ample opportunities to the sportsmen to prove their mettle.
While many of the local cricketers like Umran Malik, Rasik Salam, Parvez Rasool, Abdus Samad, Mujtaba Yousuf, Auquib Nabi have made it big by carving out places in playing 11s of different teams in the cash rich Indian Premier League (IPL) or have become part of the net bowling, there are many other players who have earned both name and fame locally. These players have turned their passion for cricket into a source of livelihood, to support their families.
Among the lot, Umran Malik stands tall. He is a 23-years pace sensation from J&K, who made debut for India against New Zealand, in which he took two wickets of Devon Conway and Daryl Mitchell.
Many term it a good thing for Kashmir cricket. Kashmir is crazy for cricket. From north to south there are over a hundred playgrounds where the game is being played on a daily basis involving massive crowds cheering up for their teams. Such scenes are more seen in the winters.
Amid this fever for cricket, many brilliant players locally have chosen it as their profession.
“They charge between 1000-2000 for playing a match,” said a cricketer, adding, this is a great thing that has happened though lately.
The popular faces of Kashmir cricket locally are Aadil Ganguly, Aadil Reshi (Kachru), Aadil Raja (Gul Don), Jahangir Lone, Hashim Watson, Aaqib Mir, Waseem Kachru, Ishnag, Imtiyaz Lefty, Nasir Kumar and many others in the league.
These players are popular with their sobriquet names as mentioned above among their fans.
“Top performing players are hired by other team owners, village teams and even clubs to play for them. They don’t play for free. We have to pay them. Last year, we hired four players when we had gone to Ramban to play a tournament that carried a cash prize of one lakh rupees. We won that tournament,” said Mohammad Irshad, who owns a team namely Sky Warriors.
He says this is a good trend, as these top notch players help you win matches when they are on your side.
“And they deserve to be paid. At the end they have to feed their families,” he said.
According to these local cricketers, on an average they earn some 20 to 40 thousand rupees a month by playing with different teams.
“This helps us to improve our skills and feed our families too,” said one of the players.
In winters, most of these players go outside Kashmir to the states like Delhi, Rajasthan, Punjab and play with various teams in different tournaments.
