Every season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) begins long before the first ball is bowled. Months in advance, franchise scouts scatter across the domestic circuit in search of the next breakout talent, hoping to spot a player before the rest of the cricketing world catches on.
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Over the past decade, State T20 leagues have mushroomed across the country, becoming an important link in Indian cricket’s talent pathway. From Tamil Nadu to Delhi, these tournaments have given promising domestic cricketers a stage on which one outstanding season can alter the course of a career. Telangana joined that landscape this year with TG20, offering homegrown talent the chance to prove their mettle in conditions designed to mirror the IPL experience. While that alone marks a major leap for aspiring cricketers, the league’s biggest contribution may lie beyond the bright lights.
For years, the story of cricket in the State has largely been the story of Hyderabad. Particularly since the bifurcation of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, the Hyderabad Cricket Association (HCA) has faced criticism for concentrating much of its infrastructure and player-development efforts within the capital. TG20, however, has started changing that equation. Depending on who you ask, that was either the intention from the outset, a fortunate by-product, or simply a move to placate critics. Whatever the motivation, the impact has been undeniable.
The league has made it mandatory for each of the eight teams to field two district players in its playing XI while doing away with the polarising ‘Impact Player’ rule. The franchises — Hyderabad e-Champions, Khammam Aces, Karimnagar Diamonds, Ranga Reddy Risers, Nalgonda Knights, Palamuru Strikers (Mahabubnagar), Warangal Warriors and Medak Falcons — have consequently been compelled to cast their nets wider, conducting trials, scouting extensively and identifying talent from across Telangana that might otherwise have remained outside the State’s cricketing ecosystem.
The impact has been immediate. The inaugural season has generated considerable interest, prompting organisers to open additional stands at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium as attendance rose from around 7,000 during the opening week to nearly 15,000. Domestic cricketers whose performances once unfolded before empty seats are suddenly playing before sizeable crowds, television cameras and IPL scouts.
From the margins to the main stage
As a result, beyond the familiar names of K. Himateja, M. Abhirath Reddy and C.V. Milind, the league has become an even bigger opportunity for players from districts across Telangana, far removed from Hyderabad’s established cricketing circles.
The first batch of district cricketers has done far more than merely survive. Their performances have drawn attention not only from the ever-watchful IPL scouts but also from those tasked with shaping cricket in the State, as Ambati Rayudu, HCA’s Head of Cricket Operations, points out. “I see tremendous talent. TG20 has brought about a lot of hope among players in the districts, simply because they now have a platform to showcase themselves at a high level,” he says.
To be fair to the HCA, efforts to open cricket’s doors to players beyond Hyderabad had begun even before TG20, with the association conducting district trials across Telangana. Four players currently featuring in the league — Javvaji Srikanth, Naga Sudhamsh, Md. Azheruddin and Samhith Reddy — earned their opportunity through that initiative.
If one player has truly announced himself through TG20, it is 26-year-old all rounder Ganesh Gadugu. His cricketing journey began while delivering newspapers as a middle school student. What started with tennis-ball cricket gradually grew into something far more serious.
Spectators fill the stands at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad during a match at the inaugural TG20, as the league continues to draw increasing crowds.
| Photo Credit:
Nagara Gopal
“The road has not been easy, but I am happy where I am today,” Ganesh says. “The decision to pick up cricket was easy; it is my passion, and my family has been supportive. That is all I care about. It helps me stay focused even when there are enough voices asking me to give it all up and live a ‘normal’ life.”
Choosing cricket may have been easy. Pursuing it was anything but.
Hailing from Venkatapur in Narayanpet district, Ganesh has travelled repeatedly to Hyderabad in pursuit of opportunities, including taking part in HCA’s summer camp earlier this year. Without relatives in the city and unwilling to burden anyone with requests for accommodation, he found a solution of his own.
“The trials were from Monday to Friday, with weekends off. So I would come by Sunday night and sleep in the dressing room [at Gymkhana Ground, Secunderabad]. We would get up and train every morning, after which everyone would head home and I would retreat to the dressing room. That would be the case till Friday evening, when I would pack up and go back home,” he shares.
The small eateries around Gymkhana Ground took care of his meals. Cricket took care of everything else. Those nights on a dressing-room floor are perhaps a little easier to look back on now that Ganesh helped his team, Hyderabad e-Champions, remain unbeaten through the league stage, finishing as its second-highest run scorer.
Many roads, one dream
Ganesh’s story is remarkable, but far from unique. Across Telangana, several district cricketers have overcome their own set of obstacles in pursuit of the game.
For Mohammed Arfaz Ahmed, 24, and Mohammad Afreedi Ahmed, 27, brothers from Siddipet, every trial, every training session and every match meant another journey to Hyderabad — nearly 100 km one way — followed by a trip back home the very same day.
“Our father runs a tent-house business, and he is close to 60 now. We would not be good sons if we let him struggle while we just stuck to playing. So we travel to Hyderabad and return home the same day, every time. Even if we can help him for just an hour or two between getting on and off buses, that is absolutely fine. Something is better than nothing, right?” says Arfaz as Afreedi nods in agreement.
That Arfaz managed to dismiss Afreedi when their respective teams, Nalgonda Knights and Palamuru Strikers, faced each other has only strengthened their bond and, naturally, given them fresh ammunition to tease one another.
Sometimes the journey to cricket is not defined by sacrifice alone. Sometimes it is defined by detours.
View of the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium during the ongoing TG20 season in Hyderabad.
| Photo Credit:
NAGARA GOPAL
Gnana Prakash Reddy’s journey took a different turn. Growing up in Piyapalli village of Nalgonda district, the 24-year-old was introduced to cricket simply because his older cousins needed another player to complete their teams on the streets. More often than not, his chance to bat arrived moments before everyone packed up and went home.
Like countless young Indians, he completed an engineering degree, put on formal clothes and became another small cog in the country’s multi-billion-dollar IT industry. Like far fewer, he walked away from it. Not because he lacked the ability, but because he could not stop thinking about cricket. Today, representing Ranga Reddy Risers, the batter speaks about ambition with refreshing honesty.
“The goal is to play for India, obviously. But you have to be very honest with yourself. It is not possible for everyone, so I am not looking that far ahead. I just want to be in the present, for now,” he says.
Compared to many others, his path appears relatively smooth. But not everyone can say the same.
Shaik Azhar’s journey has been shaped by a different kind of sacrifice. His father drove an auto-rickshaw, borrowing money from neighbours and acquaintances simply to ensure his son received proper cricket coaching. The 23-year-old, in return, has been learning the ropes with Khammam Aces, the side that charged into the inaugural playoffs.
Every time the bowler steps onto the field, he carries pride and longing in equal measure — pride in the sacrifices that brought him this far, and the regret that the person who made them is no longer around to see where they led.
The stories differ, but one thread runs through almost all of them: infrastructure — or, more accurately, the lack of it. Talent has never been Telangana’s problem; opportunity has. It is a reality that has not been lost on the HCA either.
“There is a lot of talent in the districts, but they don’t get enough avenues to practice. If a player in the city is hitting around 200 balls a day, one in the districts might be hitting that number in a week. Once we develop the infrastructure there, we will see the gap in cricketing ability narrow down. We are going to see a lot more talent not just surface, but emerge ready to play at a higher level,” Rayudu says.
The next innings
Ganesh grew up idolising celebrated cricketer M.S. Dhoni, under whose captaincy India won the T20 World Cup in 2007 and the ODI World Cup in 2011. As a schoolboy, he would scan the newspapers he delivered for photographs of the former skipper, carefully cutting them out and preserving them in a homemade scrapbook. Today, a pathway has opened up for him to one day appear on those very same pages he once believed were reserved for the game’s biggest stars.
It is an opportunity that neither he nor the many cricketers emerging from Telangana’s districts are taking lightly. They have seized the stage with performances that have forced people to sit up and take notice. For a State long seen as defining its ambitions around Hyderabad, TG20 has begun turning the spotlight outward.
Whether Telangana ultimately becomes India’s next cricketing powerhouse will depend on what follows.
Leagues can unearth talent, but only sustained investment in coaching, infrastructure and opportunities can nurture it. The promise is unmistakably there; now it needs a system capable of sustaining it.
For years, district cricketers were not asking for shortcuts or favours. They were simply searching for a way in. TG20 has offered them one. What they make of that opportunity is now up to them; ensuring that more players get the same chance is the challenge that lies ahead.
