Is there a need for caste-based reservation in cricket? This Sandalwood actor certainly thinks so. He tells Brut why.
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00:00Cricket, right now, is actually dividing people.
00:03It's basically dominated by a small percentage of upper caste.
00:08People from poorer communities have been bowlers and people from wealthier backgrounds have
00:13been batsmen.
00:14If you look at the kind of Indian cricket team from the under 15 to kind of Ranji and
00:28various levels, it's basically dominated by a small percentage of upper caste, overrepresented
00:36and very underrepresented by all the other communities.
01:06Cricket, right now, is actually dividing people.
01:07It's basically dominated by a small percentage of upper caste, overrepresented and very underrepresented
01:08by all the other communities.
01:09If you look at the kind of Indian cricket team from the under 15 to kind of Ranji and
01:10various levels, it's basically dominated by a small percentage of upper caste, overrepresented
01:11and very underrepresented by all the other communities.
01:12If you look at the kind of Indian cricket team from the under 15 to kind of Ranji and
01:13various levels, it's basically dominated by a small percentage of upper caste, overrepresented
01:14by all the other communities.
01:15If you look at the kind of Indian cricket team from the under 15 to kind of Ranji and
01:16various levels, it's basically dominated by a small percentage of upper caste, overrepresented
01:17by all the other communities.
01:18If you look at the kind of Indian cricket team from the under 15 to kind of Ranji and
01:19various levels, it's basically dominated by a small percentage of upper caste, overrepresented
01:40by all the other communities.
01:41If you look at the kind of Indian cricket team from the under 15 to kind of Ranji and
02:06various levels, it's basically dominated by a small percentage of upper caste, overrepresented
02:35by other communities.
02:36Because you see, the class divide is much more in terms of caste and also in terms of
02:41geography.
02:42In that like the metropolitan centers, of like where I'm from, Bangalore and Delhi,
02:48Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, these centers bring in a lot of the people who have the
02:51connections to like bring in play cricket, while the village areas, they're not scouted
02:57with the same level.
02:58They're not given opportunity and the same level.
03:00lot of times professional sports, what happens is that it is the luxury of the wealthy or the
03:07people who can afford it to risk their livelihoods to play sports because they could afford it.
03:12Dalits who are poor cannot go into such non-secure professions and end up taking
03:18secure professions. If you bring in reservations, the scouting will be done not just at high-end
03:24kind of clubs or high-end schools, it'll be done at government schools, it'll be done at like
03:30village areas, it'll be done at low-income areas where our Dalits, Adivasis, OBCs, backward
03:37communities are playing and are being educated. Cricket right now is actually dividing people
03:43in terms of the economically and the privileged and the upper castes who have access to the sport
03:49which are the 15% upper caste with 70% access and all the other communities without
03:54access. In terms of the women's cricket team, there's a lot more representation and reservation
03:59of even marginalized kind of communities that are playing. Indian women's cricket team went to 2017,
04:05went to the World Cup. Our most talented are oftentimes the people who never have a chance
04:09to play whether it be Dalits and Adivasis and backward communities and religious minorities
04:14and just because they're not a part of the buddy-buddy system, they're not
04:18economically forward, they don't have influence and links and they're not in metropolitan centers
04:23doesn't mean they should be outside of actually making our Indian cricket a global exemplar
04:31in terms of composition and in terms of performance. We can clearly be
04:36the most dominant team in the world consistently if we put in reservations.