Red Bull Campus Cricket League: Cricket in the mountains and a launchpad for young prospects

While the men cricketers competed for a spot in the Rajasthan Royals roaster, the CEO of RR felt the tournament can be a ‘feeder system’ for women in the Women’s Premier League.

The Red Bull Campus Cricket League in action with a picturesque landscape in Dehradun - a tournament for stars of the future. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Imagine playing your favourite sport in a ground straight out of a postcard surrounded by tree-covered mountains on all sides. That is precisely what unfolded at the Red Bull Campus Cricket League finals on June 2nd.

While the breathtaking views were mostly enjoyed by the spectators, the women who took the field for the finals at 1 pm had to brave the heat. They, however, seemed unperturbed.

The men would take centre-stage later that evening.

It wasn’t just the climatic conditions that differed in the two finals. While the men competed to find a spot on the Rajasthan Royals roaster, the women were mostly here for “match practice,” as Anamika Kumari the captain of the runner-up University team from Ranchi put it.

But Jake Lush McCrum, the CEO of Rajasthan Royals, had other plans. “We want to be a feeder system for the Women’s Premier League.” Interestingly, McCrum had put in a bid to own one of the teams in the inaugural edition of the WPL without any success.

How will the feeder system work? McCrum says, “We have been working very closely with the owners of all the WPL teams and whoever is the top talent from here we’ll make sure they go for the try-outs for the other teams.

If the women were to get the same opportunities as the men through these programs, they would also get access to the Rajasthan Royals high-performance centre in Nagpur. The centre which has proved to be a ‘game changer’ for the team,” he said.

The high-performance centre draws its technology from the Red Bull centre in Austria and has “fourteen wickets across the middle which simulate the conditions of all the different grounds the IPL takes place in”, according to McCrum.

For Saniya and Anamika’s teams, they may get to try out for the WPL teams, but it remains to be seen if they’ll get to don the Rajasthan pink and blue any time soon. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Apart from this, the centre also provides state-of-the-art accommodation facilities so that players can just come there and practice away from the spotlight for however long they want. The products of this academy are Dhruv Jurel, IPL’s new poster boy Yashasvi Jaiswal and the men from their grassroots programs such as the campus league.

“After the WPL there’s been such a shift in the mentality, now everyone thinks cricket is a viable career option monetarily also, this league is amazing but hopefully we will have more to fight, for now it is just match practice,” says Saniya the winning captain from Rizvi College, Mumbai.

However, McCrum now intends on opening the centre to women as well. While Saniya and her teamsters are unaware of his plans they don’t hesitate in mentioning that they hope the next Saika Ishaque or Shreyanka Patil is one among them.

Speaking about the level of shift in mentality, Saniya says, ”I have grown up playing with Jemimah and some of the younger girls here have also played with her. Earlier everyone used to get over-awed by her achievements but now everyone knows they too can reach that level and play against the world’s best.”

For Saniya and Anamika’s teams, they may get to try out for the WPL teams, but it remains to be seen if they’ll get to don the Rajasthan pink and blue any time soon.

McCrum stays slightly ambiguous,” if the opportunity arises and it makes sense business-wise in the future we may bid again for a WPL team,” his plans for the feeder system, however, give rise to an exciting future for Indian women’s cricket.