CricHeroes, an organisation which took shape just five years ago, is reaching out across the towns and villages of the country to bring out fresh talents in cricket.
“We have built up an app and popularised it,” said Abhishek Desai, the owner of the organisation. The 40-year-old IT professional-turned-cricket business firm owner has raised Rs 12.4 crore through subscription in past one year.
CricHeroes currently has more than two million active users. More than 15 million people have registered with the app to use its cricket data services. The organisation has recorded a 126 per cent annual growth.
The ultimate target of Desai and his team is to reach out to the amateur cricketers in every nook and corner of the country. CricHeroes has a tie-up with 200 plus cricket associations that include 20 plus state associations and 30 plus international associations including test playing nations like Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh from Asia. Even Latin American nations, the United States and Canada have signed agreement with his firm to popularise cricket in their nations, he said.
“Signing partnership with boards in India give you a chance to reach the grassroot level,” said Desai.
He started his journey with Baroda Cricket Association and later joined hands with Gujarat Cricket Association in 2018. Baroda Cricket Association later referred his team to Cricket Association of West Bengal when Sourav Ganguly was at the helm of affairs there.
Ganguly’s initial reaction to Desai’s proposal was, as quoted by him, “Fabulous. If it were during our time, we would have done more than what we did”.
In 2016, Desai had done a survey in Gujarat and understood that though the cricket was a 'religion' in India, the story is pathetic at the grassroot level. No one knew how to improve themselves. The local clubs had no data.
Every single cricketer at the village level can register and open a CricHeroes account for free. For getting advance analysis, he or she needs to make a payment of Rs 99 per month and Rs 499 per year. Using this app, he can store his scores, see the ups and downs and check how he can improve his runs in future. The premium options of the app came with other benefits including streamlining of matches and evaluation of performance.
“A batsman could evaluate how was he getting out. Which ball he was weak against—pace or spin. If spin, then which kind of spin, left or right or topspin,” said Desai.
The statistics for individual or the team can be retrieved at any point of time.
Players like Krunal Pandya had their scores maintained on the App because CricHeroes was the scoring partner for their respective associations. CrickHeroes has tied up with Rajasthan Royals to trace the hidden talents in their state. In West Bengal, too, CricHeroes has reached many districts thanks to the CAB.
CricHeroes does not store data of cricket legends like other apps such as Cricinfo. Its sole purpose is to make people associated with sports successful.
“Even cricket merchants like bat or ball manufacturers can trade through this app,” Desai said.
What is Desai's ambition? “To reach 100 million cricket loving people (now they have reached only 17 millions) and make similar approach to other sports as well so that Indian sports have many Gods.”
