Off-side: From wunderkind to wondering why
Off-side: From wunderkind to wondering why
Child prodigies aren’t exactly a new phenomenon. Humanity, for long, has been captivated by the idea of children outpacing their age. Neighbourhood aunties, armed with cups of tea and unsolicited opinions, can’t wait to crow about their little geniuses who have a knack for solving algebraic equations years before their classmates mastered the long division.
The world has always swooned over the Mozarts of history, composing symphonies before they turned five, or Sachin Tendulkar scoring centuries at 17 while the rest of us were figuring out how to talk to people we fancied.
But not every wunderkind can keep pace with the myth the world weaves around them. For every Tendulkar, there’s a Budhia Singh — the boy who ran 50 marathons before his fourth birthday. But running marathons of expectations can be exhausting, both for the legs and spirit. Budhia disappeared from public consciousness as fast as he appeared in it; his talent wrung dry even before it had a chance to ripen.
Prithvi Shaw, a Test centurion when he was still too young to legally order a pint, is also paying the price of early fame and the paraphernalia it brings with it — money, endorsements, Insta reels and existential dread.
But the world doesn’t pause to reflect. There’s always another prodigy waiting. The three-year-old Anish Sarkar, the youngest-rated chess player with a FIDE rating of 1555; or the crorepati cricketer Vaibhav Suryavanshi.
The 13-year-old from Bihar scored a century for India in an Under-19 game against Australia earlier this year and was soon commoditised at the IPL auction. Rajasthan Royals secured his services for Rs 1.10 crore.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Article 32 protects children against economic exploitation. The sale (defining whether the auctioning of a cricketer counts as one is a debate for the lawyers) and trafficking of children is outlawed under Article 35. Neither the UNCRC nor the Committee on the Rights of the Child, however, has clearly defined a legal minimum age for professional sporting participation unlike it has for child marriage (18 years).
In football, clubs like Barcelona (2014), Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid (2016) and Chelsea (2019) have faced bans for circumventing FIFA rules that prohibit international transfers of players under 18. Yet, Lionel Messi signed his first Barcelona contract on a napkin when he was 13.
In Spain, players can sign a youth contract at 16 and a professional contract at 18 (Barca sensation Lamine Yamal is expected to sign a bumper professional contract when he turns 18 on July 13, 2025), while they can sign a professional contract on their 17th birthday in England.
In India, hiring children under 14 for any work, other than in certain family-based ones, attracts up to two years of jail time, according to the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act of 1986. However, its applicability to professional sport has never been considered.
“It is perhaps time for governing bodies to bring in regulations for the engagement of minors in professional sport to ensure they are not only protected from commercial exploitation by those who control them but also to ensure sport does not come in the way of their educational, emotional and social development,” says noted sports lawyer Nandan Kamath. “One way to do this would be to ensure their sporting journey remains amateur until a certain age, which means they can play sport but are not paid for playing.”
For Suryavanshi, there’s hope in mentor Rahul Dravid and Rajasthan Royals’s robust academy system. But how do we balance talent and childhood, ambition and innocence?
Let us not weigh down kids with dreams and responsibilities too heavy for their small, still unsteady feet. Let them run, but let them run free.
