Sixteen young men gathered across the picturesque Lolab valley in Kashmir’s Kupwara district a week after the May 10 ceasefire brought a halt to the military conflict between India and Pakistan. The day was both sunny and cloudy, casting shadows over the sprawling valley ringed by deodar trees.

Carefree and effervescent, the young men were jovial as they warmed up for the cricket match they were about to play, testing the microphone in between quips and conversation.

When asked about their favourite players, one mentioned popular Indian batsman Virat Kohli while another named Babar Azam, a Pakistani cricketer. They laugh at the mention of Azam, shush and nudge each other.

The match stakes are attractive – Rs 30,000 to be awarded to the winning team at the end of a two-month-long series. Such matches are common in Kashmir, but rising beyond the local level can be difficult with hundreds aspiring to play at the level of the IPL or for a much coveted spot in the national team.

Anhad, an NGO, is the organiser for the match. Abdul Raouf Sheikh of Anhad explains the reasons for organising the match immediately after the ceasefire. “The youth were affected by the grimness of the war. We cannot let them dwell on it. There is also a culture of rampant drug use which we need to watch out for. Therefore, we pull the youth towards sport to distract and occupy them as much as possible.”

Anhad also organises football matches for girls.

In the last five or six years, Kashmir has experienced tumult in the form of the reading down of Article 370, the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent terror attack in Pahalgam. Shops, offices and establishments have been repeatedly shut with people being forced to stay home.

Jammu and Kashmir has among the highest unemployment figures in the country with the Periodic Labour Force Survey for October-December 2024 pegging unemployment in the 15-29 years age group at 35.3%.

People are turning to cricket in the hope of income. “Many young men in Kashmir have turned to cricket with the hope of earning some money through cricket or associated livelihoods in sports medicine and physiotherapy,” says sports journalist Sharda Ugra.

Kashmir-based observers also say that young men are pushed towards the sport to prevent them from participating in political agitations and unrest.

Cricket in Kashmir received a fillip when Parvez Rasool became the first Kashmiri Muslim selected to play in the Indian national cricket team versus an international team in 2013. Rasool, who hails from Anantnag district, has inspired many young people to play the sport professionally. He also was the first cricketer from the region to bag an IPL contract when he was selected for the Pune Warriors India.

Rasool’s selection and subsequently that of others like Manzoor Dar and Rasikh Salam in the IPL have sparked the rise of a number of local clubs and cricketing leagues. “Clubs like Royal Goodwill or Sultan Baramulla have an immense following and sometimes their players have a greater following than even state-level players,” says Rasool, who is also an organiser of the popular Bijbehara Cricket League.

Playing at this level also brings in cash incentives. “In big local tournaments and leagues, a player can earn Rs 3,000 as match fees in addition to their food and stay being taken care of. Attractive cash prizes, man of the match and man of the series awards are a big draw,” says Fawzul Kabir of Gr8 Sports, a company in Kashmir that manufactures cricket bats.

But it’s not all rosy. For every match they want to play in, players must first pay the match organisers. Twenty-seven-year-old Mehraj of Kupwara district, who plays in local matches says: “Just to play, I first have to pay Rs 5,000 to the match organiser. I also have to purchase batting pads and gloves.” The organiser collects Rs 80,000 from a team of 16 players and sets aside Rs 15,000 or Rs 20,000 for the winning team and Rs 10,000 for the losing team.

Mehraj doesn’t have a job and helps at his father’s bakery. His parents, he says, don’t mind his expenditures on playing cricket. “My family is aware of the larger troubled surroundings in Kashmir. They are aware that I am on the right path and not doing anything wrong or objectionable, and will not bring disrepute to the family,” he says.

“Instead, I’m focusing on my mental and physical health and manage to stay away from drugs and addiction,” he adds.

But Mehraj is also aware of the limits of local cricket and how far it can take him. Cricket infrastructure in Kashmir is extremely limited, with local cricket matches played on mats rather than cricket turf, for instance.

The Legends League Cricket tournament held last year in Kashmir brought in eminent cricketers Chris Gayle, Ian Bell and Irfan Pathan. The matches were held in Srinagar’s Bakshi stadium that usually hosts football matches, and not at the Sher-i-Kashmir cricket stadium owing to its poor infrastructure.

“The unsatisfactory state of the Sher-i-Kashmir stadium is an embarrassment for the Jammu and Kashmir Cricket Association (JKCA),” says Kabir.

The JKCA that is tasked with promoting cricket in Kashmir has not stood up to the task, critics say, accusing it of a lack of transparency and accountability in its selections.

It has also been involved in corruption allegations, with former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and JKCA president Farooq Abdullah along with other office-bearers being chargesheeted by the Enforcement Directorate in 2022 for allegedly siphoning off funds from the cricketing association. But the Jammu and Kashmir high court quashed the case last year. Since June 2021, JKCA has been under the management of a BCCI-appointed committee.

However, the performance of the Jammu & Kashmir team in the 2024-2025 Ranji trophy tournament was one of their best, making it the third time ever that they entered the quarter-finals.

Still, cricket commentator Kifayat Aftab points to what he says is an underrepresentation of Kashmiri people in the team: “Most of the players in the team were from Jammu and not Kashmir. Why is it that despite the abundance of local cricket talent in Kashmir, only few players were selected for the Ranji trophy? The same goes for the Duleep trophy team where very few players from Kashmir were selected.”

According to Aftab, cricket has become a business in the valley where local tournaments benefit the organisers and some players. “Big organisers can earn anywhere between Rs 60,000 to Rs 3 lakh while sought-after players can get Rs 1,500-3,000 per match. Some players play two matches in a day and are happy with their earnings. But they aren’t playing to excel in the sport but merely to earn” he says.

The Kashmir valley's poor cricket infrastructure also loads the odds against its budding players. For instance, when players participate in JKCA-conducted trials, they find themselves floundering since they are used to playing on mats on smaller grounds instead of cricketing turfs.

For Ugra, the main obstacle to the growth of cricket in the valley lies not in its players' performance but elsewhere. “The performance of the players is not in doubt. Governance of cricket in Kashmir which is the problem. Athletes are in a bind because of the lack of governance and larger political situation in Kashmir. Because of the IPL, talent is coming through, but the players just about manage. When they play, they are also under pressure from nationalist sentiments. This is not easy.”

Urvashi Sarkar is an independent journalist.

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