Aman Verma
Ask any young cricketer at the Campal grounds on a weekday evening what they are working towards, and the answer may very well be the IPL. There is a moment in the career of almost every serious cricketer in the country today when the ambition quietly changes shape. The India cap — once the singular obsession — begins to feel impossibly distant. The Indian Premier League, meanwhile, glows close enough to touch. Franchise cricket has become not the first step on the staircase, but the final destination.
For players from major cricketing states, this shift carries its own pressures. For those from smaller ones — Goa, Tripura, Uttarakhand — it means something different entirely. It means that the single biggest opportunity in the country now sits behind a wall of year-round competition, elite coaching, and relentless exposure that most of them simply do not have equal access to.
Goa is not a cricketing backwater. The Goa Cricket Association has spent years expanding its coaching network, upgrading facilities, and formalising youth pathways. Yet consistent IPL representation remains elusive — and within the state’s cricketing community, there is an increasingly candid conversation about why.
“Over the past few years, we have focused on strengthening grassroots development, expanding our coaching centres across Goa, and improving access to quality infrastructure, fitness programmes, and competitive exposure,” says GCA President Mahesh Desai. He is optimistic about where the pipeline is heading, confident that the systems being put in place will produce “players capable of breaking into the IPL and making an impact at the national level” over the next five years.
But optimism about foundations does not address the gap that currently exists at the top.
IPL scouts do not select potential. They select performance — accumulated, verifiable, pressure-tested performance. And that is precisely where players from smaller cricketing states find themselves at a structural disadvantage.
“IPL selection is purely performance-driven,” says Sahil Dhuri, Chairman of the GCA Junior Selection Committee. “Players must consistently perform in domestic tournaments to come into the spotlight. In other states, players get year-round exposure through multiple competitions, which is still limited in Goa, and that difference plays a major role at the highest level.”
A shorter competitive calendar is not merely an inconvenience. It means fewer opportunities to fail, recover, and grow under pressure. It means less familiarity with the specific kind of high-intensity decision-making that franchise cricket demands. Infrastructure can be built in years. Match-hardness takes a career.
GCA’s U-23 assistant coach Avadhut Amonkar has watched this dynamic play out across age groups. “Goa has improved a lot in terms of infrastructure, with more quality grounds and better facilities than earlier,” he acknowledges. “But at this stage, it is about how players understand match situations, their roles, and how they handle pressure. Other states are ahead because they play more high-intensity cricket throughout the year.”
The gap, in other words, is not in talent. Goa has that.
Abhinav Tej Rana announced himself to the wider cricketing world with a double century on his Ranji Trophy debut in 2025 — an innings that immediately placed him on the radar as a serious prospect. Suyash Prabhudessai has already had a taste of the IPL, demonstrating what Goan cricket can produce when given the right platform.
Darshan Misal brings dependable all-round contributions in pressure moments, while Mohit Redkar has drawn attention for his control and discipline in limited-overs cricket. The names are there. What remains incomplete is the environment that converts promising names into IPL regulars.
This is the central tension facing not just Goa, but every developing cricketing state in the country — the IPL has raised the ceiling of what a domestic career can look like while simultaneously raising the floor of what it demands. Players who might once have grown steadily through first-class cricket into national reckoning now face the pressure of being IPL-ready far earlier — and that readiness requires a volume of competitive cricket that uneven domestic structures cannot always provide.
Amonkar sees reason for measured hope. “The pipeline is improving through age-group camps, and if players stay disciplined, Goa will produce IPL-level cricketers in the coming years.” But he is clear-eyed about what that requires — not just better facilities, but a denser, more demanding competitive calendar that keeps Goan cricketers sharp across the full length of a season.
Until that gap closes, the IPL will remain what it has quietly become for an entire generation of players across smaller cricketing states — not a stepping stone, but the summit: visible, coveted, and just out of reach.
If you want, I can also tighten it for publication, reduce word count, or sharpen the hea
Waiting for the call-up… but the cap proves elusive
