Back at the Crease: The Second Innings Begins at 45

At 19, he played for Maharashtra. At 45, he is coaching the next generation. What happened in between is the most interesting part.

In 2001, a 20-year-old from Maharashtra was picked for the Ranji Trophy.

Stories that begin like this usually end in one of two places. The national team, or a lifetime of what-ifs.

Shripad Bhagwat’s went somewhere else entirely. It went into a telecom office. And then, 25 years later, back to the nets.

This is not a story about a dream deferred. It is a story about reinvention of dream.

The early 2000s were a different time to love cricket. There was no IPL. Coaching was patchy. Unless you made the national team, the road to a sustainable cricket career was barely visible.

The dream existed. The ecosystem around it did not

The Crossroads: Sustainable Career Vs Passion

So at the crossroads between sport and a steady career, Shripad chose security. Many of us would recognise that choice. Most of us have lived a version of it.

What followed was a quarter-century in telecom, all the way into leadership roles. He doesn’t speak of it as a consolation prize. “I have enjoyed and learnt so much in 25 years,” he says.

Through it all, cricket never really left. He kept playing corporate tournaments, kept his hand in, kept the door ajar.

Around 2017, he opened it a little wider.

No resignation letter. No dramatic exit. He simply started training a few cricket enthusiasts on the side. One player became a few. A few became longer engagements. The experiment quietly ran for eight years.

Those years answered two questions. Could his passion become a profession? And did he actually want it to?

By the time he went full-time, he knew both answers.

His transition was not driven by burnout or an escape from corporate life. Nor was it a romantic decision to abandon money for passion. Love for the game was the reason. Patience was the method. He waited until the move made sense, and until the person whose opinion matters most to him, his partner, was in his corner.

Shripad isn’t trying to reclaim the career he might have had at 19. That boy had talent and no roadmap. The man has a roadmap, and a reason.

“I want to contribute to cricket and give back what it has given me,” he says. “Sportsmanship and discipline.”

The game he is returning to looks nothing like the one he left. The IPL has changed what’s possible. Parents are better informed. Young players have technology, specialised training and pathways that didn’t exist two decades ago. What’s still missing, Shripad believes, is mentorship: someone who can show a young player what it really takes to progress.

Here’s the irony. To become that mentor, he has had to become a student again.

“Being in form is just not enough,” he says. “I need to know and teach the right tactics.”

So at 45, alongside coaching, he is back in training programmes and certification courses, learning the game all over again.

The corporate years gave him leadership.

Cricket gave him discipline.

Age gave him perspective.

And financial stability gave him the freedom to choose.

We are told that by 30, life should be settled. Career chosen, income steady, the road ahead predictable. Shripad sees it differently. Our twenties, he believes, are often a race we sign up for in search of validation. What comes after can be quieter, and far more interesting: autonomy.

The responsibilities don’t disappear. If anything, they become more pronounced. But so does the freedom to decide on your own terms, and the judgement to take a calculated risk.

Perhaps that is what a second innings really is. Not walking away from the life you built, but asking whether it can finally make room for the life you still want.

Shripad isn’t telling anyone to quit their job at 40. His story is more nuanced than that. Sometimes stability is not the opposite of reinvention. It is what makes reinvention possible. And sometimes, the passion you left behind has no expiry date.

His goal for this innings is clear: to coach a state or national team. It is still a work in progress.

But every innings begins with the first ball. And at 45, Shripad Bhagwat is back at the crease.

What is your story of the second innings? Share with us!