Paranjpe: Indian cricket talent hunt will continue to widen for next 10–15 years

In India cricket has emerged as an evergreen sport and over the years the nation has been playing a crucial role in producing star players at the top levelSimilar to the Indian Premier League IPL the former cricketers and wellwishers of the sport have come together to provide an opportunity for the grassroots cricketers to shine at the highest possible level by launching the Indian Street Premier League ISPLFollowing the success of the previous two editions of the league ISPL is set to launch its third edition Speaking exclusively about the success of the tournament with midday the Head of Selection Committee Jatin Paranjpe said I think from what I am seeing every season has a better talent pool than the previous one actually So the talent pool for the third season is the best of all three seasons so far So I am really excited about thatA lot of these players will have very very bright futures you know in the years to come he addedThe tournament is backed by a strong leadership group featuring core committee members Sachin Tendulkar Ashish Shelar Minal Amol Kale and Suraj SamatFurther speaking when asked about the aspects that a selector sees in a player based on which the potential has been judged the former Team India cricketer said the ability to smash the ball at a distance is one of the big factors that he looks atLets talk about batsmen first So I think the ability to hit a long ball the range hitting the ability to hit sixers is something which we look at very very carefully Big hitting ability is the one big factor for us the 53yearold former cricketer told middayWhen it comes to bowlers Paranjpe said that it depends on the variations that a bowler can bowlFrom a bowling perspective we look at variety 156 Are they able to bowl yorkers Are they able to bowl slow ones Are they able to bowl slow bouncers 203 We look at such 34 criteria Because at the end of the day one team is made of a combination of players right 213 So we try and offer the best combination that a franchise will be looking for essentially he saidThen if the talent is not there we also have to think about everything from a team owners perspective he addedParanjpe also spoke about how the league helps in fetching new talent in different cities of IndiaI think India is a very very big country So the process of widening the talent hunt is going to be on for the next 1015 years basically So every year we are trying to take the selections to more and more cities Because we firmly believe that there is talent in every corner of India And we are always staying true to our objective of straight to the stadium said the veteran of 62 firstclass matchesWe want to take this to as many cities as possible Because we know for a fact that India has the youngest population in the world So there is a lot of talent available and we want to go and look in every corner for that talent he concludedThe third edition of the Indian Street Premier League ISPL is set to kick off from January 9 to February 6 2026 The venue for the tournament will be Lalbhai Contractor Stadium in Surat