iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
Indian cricket in India is one of the biggest moneymakers in the world. With some of the biggest investors and brands associated with it, Indian cricket players are paid huge sums.
While it’s all glory at the top end, thousands of players fail to make name for themselves even after giving great performances. This is could purely because a country of a billion people is yearning to make it to the top 11 spots in the top tier cricket team.
This makes it difficult for many talented cricketers to make it to the national team due to cut-throat competition. The situation forces many domestic cricketers to switch their allegiance to another country in order to materialize their dream of playing international cricket.
In fact, the United States has been roping in many such players to offer their services to its domestic leagues. And many domestic cricketers have joined the bandwagon to live their American dreams.
Unmukt Chand, a former Indian U-19 skipper recently retired from Indian cricket and he has decided to play international cricket for USA. Under Chand’s stewardship India had won the U-19 World Cup in 2012. But he was forced to take the tough decision as he didn’t get any backing of the selectors in the Indian senior team.
Chand had a brief IPL stint, but he didn’t get much success in the cash-rich league. He has a meagre 300 runs from 21 matches including just one-half century under his belt. The aggressive batsman has played for franchises like Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils.
Another known name is Siddharth Trivedi, who had a good stint in the Indian Premier League (IPL). He was one of the best bowlers for Rajashan Royals to have played the league. The seamer has taken 65 IPL wickets from 75 matches and played domestic cricket for Gujarat and Saurashtra.
However, he has a downward curve in IPL after 2023 as BCCI banned him for one year not for reporting a corrupt approach. Then he switched over to a coaching stint with American Cricket Academy and Club. They have also given an offer to Trivedi to play for their team in an Americal League and the adept seamer promptly agreed to them.
Like this many have changed their allegiance to the US. Some of the other players Timil Patel, Smit Patel, Sourav Netravalkar, Sunny Sohal and more. All of these extremely talented players have one way or another have been let down by their national team.
By moving to the US, they are now able to keep their passion alive and hone their skills.
