You Don’t Get Kohli Without Gully Cricket

The odds of building a unicorn are slim.

So are the odds of playing for the Indian cricket team.

If you were to approach either purely rationally - with spreadsheets and risk models - you'd probably never try. It doesn't make sense on paper.

A corporate job or government career offers more stability. Clearer paths. Predictable outcomes. Sensible ROI.

But we don't live in spreadsheets. We live in stories.

And some of us want to be the story.

I see it in founders every day - the same irrational drive I once saw in kids playing gully cricket.

Latenight pitches. Bootstrapped experiments. Burning savings to test an idea that maybe 5 people believe in.

They're not doing it for a guaranteed outcome. They're doing it because, somewhere deep down, they want to be in the arena.

Because ambition - not logic - is what built Zomato, Zerodha, and every other startup we now take for granted.

Cricket changed in India not because the BCCI got more efficient - but because the IPL changed the economics.

It created more opportunities.
It gave backup plans.
It let people try.

You didn't have to break into the national team to make a living from the sport. That expanded the base. It improved the game. It made the entire ecosystem better.

Entrepreneurship in India needs the same.

"A strong ecosystem doesn't guarantee stars - but it guarantees chances."

More experiments. More capital. More acceptance of failure.

We need small towns shipping apps. College kids tinkering on SaaS ideas. Former operators turning angels. Founders with second chances.

Not everyone will win. That's the point.

But the more people who try, the better our odds of producing something great. Because Zomato didn't start with a billiondollar plan. And Kohli was just a kid dreaming of a blue jersey once.

As you don't get Kohli without gully cricket, same way, you don't get unicorns without irrational ambition.