A Boy from Kulgam

There is a temptation, every time a player from the margins succeeds, to package the moment as a feel-good story and move on. We did it before, and we are at risk of doing it again. On the night of May 31, 2026, as Royal Challengers Bengaluru became only the third side in history to successfully defend the Indian Premier League title, the cameras found Virat Kohli, who scored a fantastic 75 off 42 balls to guide RCB past Gujarat Titans’ total in 18 overs. The narrative was set, and it was a good one. But the more important story that night wore the number of an afterthought. RCB’s bowlers restricted Gujarat Titans to just 155 for 8, and at the heart of that effort was a 26-year-old from a village roughly 70 kilometres from Srinagar. Rasikh Salam returned figures of 3 for 27, including a death-overs strike, a cross-seam length ball that cut back to take Rahul Tewatia’s edge that broke the back of Gujarat’s late charge. I want to argue that we owe Rasikh Salam Dar more than applause. We owe him an honest reckoning with what his success actually proves and what it should compel. Consider the obstacles. Rasikh was born on April 5, 2000, in the village of Ashmuji in Kulgam district, where his cricket began in tennis-ball matches in the village. Living nearly 70 to 80 kilometres from Srinagar, even reaching trials was an ordeal when he first went for Under-19 trials he didn’t even understand the process and wasn’t selected, and it was only the next year, when Irfan Pathan happened to be present, that his life changed. The doubt was not only about logistics. His own family and relatives told him no one could take cricket as a profession because so few were playing from the region. The faith that carried him was singular: his mother always believed in him and said since his childhood that her son would become a cricketer. His RCB coach Omkar Salvi later put his finger on what that upbringing forged: “There is a character in him, staying in the hills of Jammu and Kashmir, that hard life, travelling long hours to go and play cricket.” A young man overcame distance, doubt, injury and the near-total absence of a pathway and still reached the summit. That is not a triumph of the system. It is a triumph despite the system. For years, sceptics could dismiss Kashmiri cricketers as exceptions. That argument is dead. On March 1, 2026, Jammu and Kashmir secured their maiden Ranji Trophy title, with Auqib Nabi taking 5 for 54 in the final against an opposition that included KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal and Karun Nair. Captain Paras Dogra scored 637 runs across the season, finishing second only to Abdul Samad’s 748. The pipeline now has depth and history: Parvez Rasool was the first from J&K to play for India, Umran Malik rewrote the speed records, and Abdul Samad has been a consistent IPL performer. The man who handed RCB the 2026 trophy, BCCI president Mithun Manhas, himself moved to Jammu and Kashmir, played and coached there. When the head of Indian cricket’s board, a Ranji-winning state and a Rs-6-crore IPL bowler all trace to the same union territory in the same season, “exception” is no longer an honest word. The word is “emergence.” Rasikh’s own market value tells the financial half of the story. Royal Challengers Bengaluru secured him for Rs 6 crore, making him Kashmir cricket history’s most expensive auction signing and the most expensive uncapped player in the 2025 auction. The market has already priced in the valley’s talent. The institutions must now price in its infrastructure. The demand is overwhelming. The Jammu and Kashmir Sports Council estimates more than 1.2 lakh registered players are now associated with the game, most under 25. Grassroots culture has bloomed around tournaments like the Chinar Premier League and Downtown Premier League, which draw large crowds and sponsorships. The supply of facilities, however, is the chokepoint and the admission comes from the very top. Mithun Manhas, who once headed the sub-committee for J&K Cricket Association affairs, has conceded a shortage of good-quality grounds and stadia. Independent assessments are blunter still: the region has only two major stadiums meeting national standards, the Sher-e-Kashmir Stadium in Srinagar and the SKPA Ground in Ganderbal with modernisation slowed by administrative and climatic factors. Money has begun to move. Under Khelo India, more than Rs 50 crore have been allocated for sports infrastructure since 2019, upgrading grounds across Baramulla, Pulwama and Kupwara with turf pitches, indoor nets and floodlights. The JKCA now runs 92 centres serving around 4,500 children, many from remote areas. The institutional intent is real too: in October 2025, BCCI Infrastructure Committee chairman Rohan Jaitley and president Mithun Manhas met Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and assured full support for upgrading the ecosystem including modern training centres, better pitches and advanced amenities. A new international-standard stadium has been approved and constructed at Hiranagar, Kathua, with a specific demand pending for a BCCI-standard international stadium that could position Jammu as a venue for domestic and international fixtures. Good. But “begun” is not “finished,” and 92 centres for 1.2 lakh players is a ratio that should embarrass a board as wealthy as the BCCI. If the sporting argument were not enough, Kashmir offers an economic one that no other region can match. Cricket here is not merely played; it is made. Nearly 3 million bats are manufactured in Kashmir annually and exported to 125 countries, making it the world’s largest exporter of cricket bats. The industry provides income to more than 100,000 people, with some 400 manufacturing units in south Kashmir alone generating a turnover exceeding Rs 100 crore. Kashmiri willow even reached the international stage when bats from Anantnag were used by Oman’s players at the T20 World Cup. Yet this industry is endangered by neglect, a raw-material shortage from accelerated tree-cutting and inadequate willow planting, and the absence of a modern seasoning cluster plant that forces manufacturers into slow, sub-standard open-air drying. Academic study of the cluster concludes that it is highly profitable, faces virtually no demand constraint, and could absorb local educated youth as a nursery for entrepreneurship. Think about the symmetry. The valley supplies the bats the world plays with and is now supplying the players too. Investing in Kashmiri cricket is not charity; it is backing a proven export economy and a proven talent economy at the same time. What Kashmir lacks is not talent, demand or belief. It lacks stadiums, seasoning plants, willow plantations and academies in the density that converts raw ability into international careers. The political alignment, a J&K-rooted board president, a willing UT government, a flush central body may never be this favourable again. Rasikh himself sees it clearly. “The streets are full of young players,” he has said. “Hopefully, facilities will keep improving, and we’ll see more players from here making it big.” He should not be the miracle. He should be the minimum. The BCCI and the JKCA have the means to ensure that the next boy from Ashmuji never has to walk 70 kilometres alone. The only question is whether they have the will. Ajaz Rashid is a social entrepreneur based in Mumbai.