sumeet rajpal

Team Washington Freedom (Photo: Sportzpics) “Hi, I am interested in this job” was a short response from a small-town boy in Satara, Maharashtra, to a Facebook post calling for applicants eager to marry their love for sport with the emerging world of social media. Sumeet Rajpal, once a struggling student who flunked multiple board exams and later marketed events at malls was a failed cricketer still chasing the dopamine rush that sport had once given him. That modest message, however, would lead him from shadows of obscurity to flashbulbs of the IPL. It marked the beginning of a remarkable journey that would see him share space with global cricketing elites as the media manager for an IPL team over 5 IPL seasons before finally assuming the challenge to advance the game’s footprint into its unfamiliar terrain of America with Washington Freedom right before the launch of the second MLC season.“I knew if I go back into the same ecosystem, I would essentially be doing the same thing. The thought of doing something repetitive kind of scared me, because I literally visualized the entire routine I’ll go through in the season. Wake up, go to the ground, stand with your phones, shoot the same thing, instruct the team to work on the same content. Players are changing, jerseys are changing, but the nets are the same, the actions are the same. And over the years, you will start realizing that a lot of the captions which go in are also the same. So, that thought of doing something again and again and getting stuck in that loop is something which kind of told me, okay, at least, let’s go out and do it at a place where the challenges are different” said Sumeet to Cricbuzz.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Sumeet and his team made an impact right away upon assuming charge. Freedom had only mustered up about 6,000 followers on Instagram up until the start of the second season. Freedom, the champions of the second season, wasn’t just hitting it out of the park in the field but was smashing it off the field as well with follower count soaring almost 5x to 28,000 by the time Steven Smith and his men lifted the trophy.While it was considerably easier for the American offshoots of IPL teams like the MI New York, LA Knight Riders and Texas Super Kings to leverage their fanbase amongst the diaspora to generate substantial follower count from the onset, Freedom made some astute strategic investments by acquiring some of the most coveted players and coaches in the T20 circuit. Players who are not swooned by the low hanging fruits of money but play only if there is a certain pedigree associated in their ownership or coaching ranks. Freedom remain the only team outside the IPL to be coached by Ricky Ponting, a distinction that not only elevated their profile but also laid the foundation for an aggressive recruitment drive. Ponting’s magnetic pull helped Freedom rope in a trio of Australian superstars: Steve Smith, Travis Head, and Glenn Maxwell, a cumulative following of over 9 million.“We spoke to all our athletes. We had a very open communication. I told them about the challenges. And one of the best thing about our players is you open up to them. You tell them what you need, and they’ll always oblige. Someone like Glenn Maxwell, one of our best, I still remember seeing about 30-35 Instagram collaboration requests with Glenn Maxwell on his page. Those are the contributions that helped us drive that growth”Securing these many collaborations from a top-flight athlete on their Instagram page in just three weeks is no mean feat. For perspective, Glenn Maxwell during his 45-day stint in the IPL collaborated with the Punjab Kings’ official Instagram handle fewer than ten times. In many ways, the volume and quality of social media content extracted from elite players hinges on the trust the media manager cultivates behind the scenes. It’s an essential part of the role to read the room. To gauge the team’s mood, sense a player’s rhythm during the tournament, and craft content that aligns with their energy and comfort.“You understand some guys may not be doing really well on the field, maybe feeling a little low, and it doesn’t take rocket science to figure that out, right? So what are the ways you can brighten him up, whether it’s taking him out for a coffee and having a nice conversation, jamming with the social media team and telling them, hey, look, this guy looks a little beat up right now. Can we do some interesting content which will brighten his mood? So find out his best hits, find out some behind the scenes content where he’s being goofy along with other players. Do some content where you ask questions to other players about good things about him and put it out on social media.” Major League Cricket 2025 Explained: Teams, Schedule & Where to Watch “I remember we at Freedom created a nice little reel to buoy up Maxwell after he left the IPL owing to an injury. It would have been gutting for him to crash out of the IPL with Punjab on such a high. Athletes are not commodities. They are human beings. And the moment you treat those human beings like human beings. I think your perspective will change. The content you do will change. And again, content will not be your priority. Your priority will be to build strong relationships with them, to build trust with them. And that’s the game changer”“It all helps with the egalitarian society that Ponting has built within the Freedom unit. He acknowledges that you’re here doing a job, you’re putting in efforts. You’re part of the team, and your efforts are going into creating a better brand for this team. You’re helping create an atmosphere which will uplift the players. Coaches like Ponting acknowledge and empower people around him”The scale…