[00:00:00 – 00:00:08] Nitin Bajaj

Everyone. Welcome to the industry show. I’m your host Nitin Bajaj. And joining me today is Sindhu Sriharsha. Sindhu, welcome on the show.

[00:00:08 – 00:00:13] Sindhu Sriharsha

Thank you, Nitin. Definitely honored to be here on the show and looking forward to a conversation.

[00:00:14 – 00:00:18] Nitin Bajaj

Likewise, and pleasure is all ours. Let’s start with who is Sindhu?

[00:00:19 – 00:00:44] Sindhu Sriharsha

Yeah. Who is Sindhu? Yeah. I get asked this question a lot of times, but Sindhu is a person who wears different hats on a given day. I’m a cricketer. I am a nonprofit founder. I am a consultant, manager in my day to day, 9 to 5 job. I’m a mother and I’m a wife. That’s who I am. And over the days, I wear different hats in different at different times of the day.

[00:00:45 – 00:00:48] Nitin Bajaj

And sometimes wearing multiple hats at the same time. Right?

[00:00:49 – 00:00:53] Sindhu Sriharsha

Yes. Yes. You learn to multitask when you become a mother. I think yes.

[00:00:55 – 00:01:14] Nitin Bajaj

We’re excited to hear about a lot of these different hats that you wear and excel at. Let’s start with talking about Aspire. Tell us what it is, why did you start it, how did you start it, and where are things that especially when it comes to the impact that you’ve been able to create through Aspire.

[00:01:15 – 00:06:08] Sindhu Sriharsha

Sure. Aspire Cricket is one of its first of its kinds in the US. It is a nonprofit founded by 4 cricketers. It is by women, for women. It is a platform available for cricketers to where we make cricket accessible and approachable and also, more, accessible to all communities, not just, where it is today more predominantly found in South Asian communities. We’re making this available in different communities and where we go and spread the love of the game and give back to the community itself and show them how much we’ve learned from the game to go back there and give it to the newer communities and encourage them to come and play the sport. So that’s as far. Why now? That’s a very interesting question. So I’ve played cricket growing up since I was 9 years old. I was definitely more like here growing up in Sindhu. So I played cricket just picking up on the streets with my friends and my brothers and cousins. But growing up here and in fact, coming over here 10 or 11 years back and try to play back the sport that I loved playing in Sindhu, I realized that there is a gap where, you know, the kids today, do not have access to the sport that we all grew up in. So I think that was one of the factors that felt like we wanna make this more accessible in the community itself. And the other was as a cricketer myself, I’ve actually gained a lot from playing the sport. There are things that I haven’t learned from going into school, like sitting on the benches and actually studying, but playing the sport itself has taught me a lot in terms of how to be a good team player, understanding success and defeat. How do we get up from failure? The right next day when you have to play back when you go back and play another game. Or, just be just simply having a passion itself. So I think these are the things that I knew that I had picked up very early on when I was a cricketer myself. So I think that is something I wanted to give back in my career itself up towards the end of my career. So it was important for me to have something that I was giving back to the community. It all comes back to once you reach a level, it’s what you’re giving back. So I think that is where the whole process started. And I was lucky to find the people that I have right now in the, you know, our Aspire team, Uzma Iftikhar. She’s also a cricketer. She grew up playing the sport in Pakistan before she moved to Canada. She’s been in Canada since she was 7 years old, then moved over to the USA and then picked up the sport as well over here when she was 24 years old. And it’s a different story altogether. And she has represented, both Canada and the USA. So it was a nice story. And she brings in a different perspective as well. Those are South Asian, but grew up in Canada. So very different circumstances. So it gives us a different perspective as well. So very glad to have her on board. And the next person I have is Julia Price. Who doesn’t know Julia Price? She’s a 3rd 3 times world world cup champion from the Australian team. She is a keeper and a batter. Was also the coach of the USA national team for close to 4 years. And she’s also coached many associate cricket within the cricket community. She was perfect in terms of when we decided to start off this. We definitely needed somebody who had all of the knowledge to transfer to us. And we were little kids wanting to start off something that we were passionate about. We obviously needed somebody and we call it the CKO, the chief knowledge officer. We gave her a tactical role as the chief knowledge officer. Having her on board has been brilliant. She’s the one who keeps us on track. A little bunch of friends who want to keep running away in different directions, but she brings us all back together, which brings us to Ani. Andrea was also another person, who was a cofounder. Very interesting story. She picked up sport when she was, like, 27, 28. Just happened to watch the game on the streets and, in one of the indoor cricket matches while she was there with a friend, just picked up the bat and felt like, oh, this is an interesting game and had never played the sport before. Fell in love with the game. And she’s one of the most, like, right now, the biggest advocates for women’s cricket at least in the Bay area. So she actually brought all of us together. It’s to think about it, it’s somebody outside of the game who’s brought us all together to bring this aspire to come into life itself. So I think all 4 of us bring in different perspectives into the team that we are, and that’s what makes Aspire what it is.

[00:06:09 – 00:06:44] Nitin Bajaj

That’s phenomenal. Such an amazing journey. And I also wanna double click on your own journey. You played cricket, then you had to leave. You came to the US. Tell us a little more about that. And also through that, if you can talk to us about where Aspire is today, where all are you providing these? I wouldn’t call it a service, but essentially that’s what it is. You’re making cricket not just accessible, but also for a lot of the people here in at least in the US, just even bringing awareness about the sport.

[00:06:45 – 00:12:05] Sindhu Sriharsha

Yeah. I mean, I moved out here just because I got married. I relocated to the US. I played for a few, I wanna say at least 15 years of cricket in India before I moved here. I picked up the Bajaj, almost I call it the 2nd innings, just for the social aspect of it. I think playing in a professional setup in India had reached a point that I needed a break from it. So I took a break for a couple of years, moved over to here and I picked up the bat and I could relive why I picked up the bat the first time, when I was 10 years old or 9 years old for the fun part of it, which I could see it more over here because it was more social. It’s not the stress of trying to make a career. Right? And then continue playing. I’m still playing for the US national team. I’ve been part of the US national team for almost 8 years now, 8 to 9 years. Definitely over the years, I’ve seen, the kids, the number of kids that have grown in the community itself is significant. Might not be as much as a full member team, but obvious full member associations. But you know, what we’ve done in the past few years has been tremendous in terms of our average age of the senior national team is 18 years old. I think 18 years is our average. I’m probably bringing that number up, but in a lot of ways that what we’ve done in the past few years is invested. It’s a conscious effort and an investment from our point of view and from the US equity point of view to develop the youngsters who are gonna be there for the next 10, 15 years to be able to give back to the community. So in the meanwhile, what we are trying to do in the Aspire is make this more more approachable, more in terms of, like, accessible and also in terms of, like, affordable as well. So the current structure of cricket in the US is more academy based. It’s definitely more academies that are around. If you add hubs around the US where you can go play cricket, but what our vision is obviously wanting to take this to the school levels, taking it to the college, taking it to the club level. One of the examples is we ran a program, a summer program in Compton, LA last year, a couple of years back with the Compton soccer, Latina Latino club. So it was a girl’s club. So we had a summer program with them for 3 months. We went out there a couple of times. Did I discover pop up cricket, like an event where we bring all of the girls together and even boys together. Whoever wants to understand the sport, we go out there, set up together, whoever wants to understand the sport. We go out there, set up an event for 2 to 3 hours, produce the cricket itself, and get them interested in it. The coaches out there who are available, who are in the system, like the soccer coaches, the cricket coaches, we give them a program that they can follow for the next 3 months. It’s a program that they can follow. And then eventually, we are obviously there for them to come back to us in terms of like resources to come back and ask any questions and help them out. And eventually towards the end of the 3 months, Compton County was so impressed with the program that was followed by these kids. A couple of kids actually got scholarships to go away from school, from to go away to college based on the program that they had followed, showing the commitment. So I think some of the programs that we’ve run are something like that. We’ve also gone to Girls Inc, Girls Inc nonprofit. Again, in Oakland, We ran a discovery pop up for about 150 girls, did a pop up session for just introducing the sport itself for the age group of this is around 12 to 17 years age group. Some of them had played softball, so it was easier for them to pick up the sport itself. And in a matter of 2 days, when we did this discovery pop up, we had so many softball players wanting to try the sport again. So I think our vision is more in terms of trying to tap these markets that have not been tapped yet. Look for players from other sports that can easily transfer their skills that are already acquired into cricket, especially softball or even hockey. There are a lot of examples that I can talk about in terms of Erica Rendler, one of the USA mainstays a couple of years back who was a field hockey player at Berkeley and who transferred and played cricket for a number of years. Once she had actually graduated, she did not play any field hockey because there is no program to play after you’ve graduated, but she found cricket. She was able to transfer the sport that she had learned, the skill that she had learned from field hockey into cricket and actually represented the USA for close to 8 years and played world cup qualifiers and was one of our mainstays. So that’s like a glory story, right? So just that we’re able to provide that platform and I think that’s where our vision is. In terms of impacts, we’ve done almost close to 11 programs so far in 4 different cities, and made an impact for about 175 girls. And I had to write that down and we have about 80 plus hours or more in terms of, like, impact hours volunteering in our nonprofit.

[00:12:06 – 00:12:51] Nitin Bajaj

That’s really amazing. Congratulations and kudos on all of this. I grew up playing cricket. I think it was a requirement we all had to. Right? It was all over the place. We couldn’t get away from it. So thank you for doing what you do, bringing the sport here and, also to our next generation. Not just as you said in the South Asian community, but it’s a beautiful sport. It teaches you many, many different things. So thank you for giving that as an option to the next generation. I’m curious to hear as you’re doing this, especially introducing a relatively unknown or a new sport to a new demographic, what is the one big challenge you’re facing?

[00:12:51 – 00:14:34] Sindhu Sriharsha

One big challenge I would say is our own capacity in terms of, like, scalability and capacity. All of us, all the 4 of us that are co-founders. We have no other people working with us, but we also have a 9 to 5 job. We currently also play, full time. So it it it kind of getting us, having the capacity that we that, you know, we can give Bajaj. And how many hours can we, in a week, give to Aspirates. So that’s our biggest problem. And also like limited financial resources, there’s something that we are actively looking for. We do have a nonprofit kind of a sponsor. We are an official nonprofit partner with SF Unicorns, which is one of the MLC teams. They have helped us a lot over this year, but I think what we definitely lack is like expertise in nonprofit strategy because none of us come from that background. We just decided one fine day on the couch that we’re gonna do this. And it’s now starting to scale and it’s definitely scaring us a little bit more. We’ve found some traction now that a lot of people wanting us to do a lot of things, but understanding, what’s our strategy. Where do we see ourselves in the next 3 or 2, 4 years? And I think just like having those plans written out, will be important for us going into 2025. That’s something that we are looking into, trying to bring in a little bit more expertise into our board itself and creating a board. A lot of things that you asked me 1, but I told you multiple things and it’s probably a growing pain of any company or any nonprofit association. It’s good. It’s good pains and it’s not something we’re too worried about.

[00:14:35 – 00:14:55] Nitin Bajaj

Yeah. It’s a great place to be again. Congratulations. And a lot of this Sindhu resonates with jumping off the plane and building another one as you’re in flight. So that’s super exciting. Now on the flip side of the challenge, and you touched upon this a little bit, what’s the most exciting opportunity you’re all looking at?

[00:14:55 – 00:15:41] Sindhu Sriharsha

The exam’s most exciting opportunity is definitely the school system. They, especially in the Tri Valley area that we are and especially in the Bay Area that we are, most of the schools are being acceptable. They understand that we can build this as a sport within the school systems. And I think being able to tap that market would be the most exciting opportunity that not just Aspen cricket, I would say for every other party that are involved wanting to, move this to the kind of move the needles after the World Cup. And I think not just for us, but I just wanna make sure that everybody else is gonna take a, you know, a village or much more than that to build it. But I think that’s probably our biggest opportunity.

[00:15:43 – 00:16:07] Nitin Bajaj

Love that. Now as we look into the future, I wanna pause, reflect, and ask you to share 2 moments in your own personal and professional career where one thing did not work out as you had expected. There was failure, lessons. And another one where things exceeded your own expectations and became a success beyond your imagination.

[00:16:08 – 00:17:48] Sindhu Sriharsha

Yeah. These are tough ones when you ask someone who’s had at least 2020 years of cricket under her belt. I think I’m gonna use a personal term in terms of my failure and then what I learned from it and how it probably resonates with what’s gonna happen with our Aspire and as we grow as well. Because in 2019, I did go to a World Cup global qualifier in Scotland. I had worked extremely hard and prepared for it for the tournament. Obviously didn’t have a great one, came back not doing very well. And once I was starting to sit down and reflect on it, and I think what I realized is I had put in the prep, but not the right prep. So I think the process itself was missing. So I think something that I learned towards the end of it was that investing in the process and building the right process was more important than the result itself. So I think that kind of applies with everything that I do today. It’s that I reflect on the processes more, not on the results. If I am comfortable with the process, then I know towards the end of it, the result will come. Maybe not immediately, but at some point the results will be there. So I think that is important to the process itself. So that’s something that I try and right now think through everything that I do, not just play playing on the field, but as simple as even having the lunchbox for my son, if I’ve got everything right there and I have all of the macronutrients that we talk about there and keep working hard in building that eventually he’s going to be able to finish that box off.

[00:17:49 – 00:17:58] Nitin Bajaj

Yeah. Keep the eye on the process, not necessarily the price because some days you get it, some days you may not. Yeah.

[00:17:58 – 00:19:04] Sindhu Sriharsha

Yeah. Correct. Yeah. Success story. That’s also a tough one to pick, but something that I’m definitely proud of is leading the USA team in 3 3 Americas regional qualifiers and Florida 2019, Mexico 2021, LA qualifiers in 2023. And all 3, we were victorious and we were the champions. We were able to qualify to the next stage to the global qualifiers. That probably is something that I cherish throughout my life. And definitely setting up Aspire. And I think it’s still very early in my career when it comes to being an Aspire founder, but I’m still learning the nitty gritty things of it. But I think just knowing that I have a platform now when I do decide that I am done with playing, I have a platform that I can go back and still be involved in a way of giving back to the community itself and to the girls that I know very closely. Yeah.

[00:19:05 – 00:19:30] Nitin Bajaj

And I think to your point of focusing on the process, just bringing a sport and helping someone learn the intricacies of the sport, but through the sport about life. I think that’s such a joyful process in and of itself. And to be able to do that with dozens and hundreds of children is, well, youth, I should say.

[00:19:31 – 00:19:31] Sindhu Sriharsha

Yeah.

[00:19:32 – 00:19:34] Nitin Bajaj

That must be really phenomenal.

[00:19:34 – 00:20:04] Sindhu Sriharsha

Yeah. That’s exactly why we are different from academies is not we’re not promising that we will give you the next best USA player. That’s not what we’re promising. We promise to see that you’re going to learn a new sport. We’re promising that you’re gonna learn a sport that’s as fun, that is giving, and that’s taken back so much when you play that sport and you will build memories, you’ll have friendships. So I think that is what we are promising. It’s not the next best cricketer in the world.

[00:20:05 – 00:20:21] Nitin Bajaj

You mentioned fun, which reminds me, given all the different hats you wear and several of them are full time responsibilities, What do you do for fun? If and when you kick back, what is it that you do?

[00:20:21 – 00:21:07] Sindhu Sriharsha

That was a big sigh. You heard that. Right? Honestly, I think that’s something that is an area for me to probably focus on a little bit more. I am pretty intense throughout with all the hats that I wear. But I do, love going for a run. And that’s probably something that off late that I’ve started picking up and I’ve started enjoying it. And also probably just having a quiet day night at home with a movie and chai in my hand with my husband and my son. I think that’s probably something that I look forward to. Don’t get to do it very often, but I’m hoping I’m able to make more time for that.

[00:21:08 – 00:21:16] Nitin Bajaj

Looking forward to that. In terms of books or podcasts, do you have a recommendation on either?

[00:21:17 – 00:22:24] Sindhu Sriharsha

Yeah. So something that I’ve actually grown up listening to or rather off late, I’ve spent a lot of time on is podcast. And one of them that I really like a lot is the lessons from the best. It’s from Paddy Upton. He is a South Africa cricket coach and also a mental coach. I’ve actually heard his podcast, some of his interviews, some of the people that he’s interviewed like Mike Hussey, Fad Du Plessis, multiple times at different phases of my life, and I’ve picked up different things at different times. So I’ve probably heard Mike has seen at least 3 or 4 times the same interview, but at different phases of my life. And what I’ve picked up is different from each time and I’ve, you know, really liked it. So I think that’s one podcast I keep going back to. And I do hear a lot of podcasts while running. I think rather than music, I prefer podcasts more. So it’s one of those that I would definitely say business should. Any athletes out there, not just for athletes, especially the pack duplicity for leadership. I think that’s something I would definitely recommend.

[00:22:24 – 00:23:14] Nitin Bajaj

Thanks for sharing that. And I’m constantly surprised that we hear the same thing or watch the same thing multiple times, but we have a new learning or we have a new realization. And not only that, but we probably didn’t even notice that part or that section or that word or a sentence was mentioned the previous time. And it’s very interesting how the brain works and looks to extract exactly what it needs at that point in time. Thanks for highlighting that it’s not even with books or movies, I learn a lot through watching movies. And, yeah, I’ve been surprised watching my favorite movie multiple times. I learn a new thing years down the line. So it’s very interesting how that works.

[00:23:15 – 00:23:17] Sindhu Sriharsha

Which one is your favorite movie?

[00:23:18 – 00:23:40] Nitin Bajaj

Well, I have a few. And I’ve been known to be very intense when it comes to watching movies. My family will typically have a good time with the people around you, not with me. I’m sucked into the movie. And so if I go out, I’m gone. Like, I’m submerged into the whole experience.

[00:23:42 – 00:23:43] Sindhu Sriharsha

Yeah. Not trying to raise your question.

[00:23:43 – 00:23:49] Nitin Bajaj

I’m saying I have quite a few of them, and I do take my time and peace and just watch the movie. I don’t want anybody around.

[00:23:50 – 00:24:02] Sindhu Sriharsha

Yeah. No worries. I grew up in a household. My brother is a director and a story writer, screenplay writer. So I know how he watches movies and how I watch movies is completely different. So I know what you’re trying to tell me. Yes. Yeah.

[00:24:02 – 00:24:09] Nitin Bajaj

I freak out when somebody says, oh, the movie is running in the background. I’m doing my work.

But I can’t relate to that. 

[00:24:11 – 00:24:12] Sindhu Sriharsha

Yeah.

[00:24:12 – 00:24:20] Nitin Bajaj

Now onto my favorite part of the show, the one line life lessons. Sindhu, would love for you to share your life lessons with us.

[00:24:21 – 00:25:33] Sindhu Sriharsha

Yeah. This was a tough one. I mean, you did send it to me. It was not but I had to write it down. I had to think through what makes me who I am and over the years what has connected to who I am. So I think I did write that down. I said state principles. I’m a very person who has principles that I follow that comes first over anything else. So I think that’s my number one. Stay principled. Honesty never runs out of fashion. So that’s I think the second one. The third one I have is respect is a foundation of any relationship and I think that’s underlying respect, bold it, capitalize it. And I think that’s number 1 for me. Then one with the leadership, it comes off like lead with courage and selflessness. I think leadership is definitely something I fly. It’s very close to my heart. Like, I think over the years, the way I lead has also changed because of adapting to different people coming into the team. So I think, yeah, just being selfless is the number one. The last one is to honor your commitments and also your support system. You’re not who you are without the support system. So I think honoring that is important.

[00:25:34 – 00:25:56] Nitin Bajaj

Love that. Sindhu, thank you so much for sharing the life lessons, but also for sharing your journey and story. Congratulations on the journey so far with Aspire and with all the different hats you’re wearing. And as I said, doing an amazing job at every single one of them. Really appreciate it. Would love to bring you back on and talk about more of the successes you’ve had.

[00:25:58 – 00:26:07] Sindhu Sriharsha

Thank you so much, Nitin. I definitely enjoyed this one. Very different to what I’m used to from different podcasts, but love the questions that you asked Sindhu. Hopefully, we can do this again.

[00:26:07 – 00:26:09] Nitin Bajaj

Looking forward to it. Thank you.

[00:26:10 – 00:26:11] Sindhu Sriharsha

Thank you.