CHENNAI: The match is about to begin. ‘Associate members’, the USA and the Netherlands, are playing; as cricket matches go, it is a battle of the minnows. Outside the MA Chidambaram stadium in Chepauk, a ground that has stood witness to cricket history being made by some of the greatest personalities to ever play the game, among the eager fans who are making a beeline to catch a cricket match live, was Kalaivani.
The 27-year-old does not go inside the watch the game. She is there to make a living. Spread before her is a mat, and displayed on it are jerseys of various colours and sizes. It is the season of sixes, fours, and historic wins in Chennai with the T20 World Cup 2026. It is also the season when dozens of hawkers like Kalaivani hope to make a tidy profit that would help them run their families.
“I want India only, not CSK,” a child says near her small stall. Kalaivani smiles and hands over the jersey, quoting Rs 200. While the parents try to bargain, she says, “It's the children’s jerseys that are in demand.” She is not wrong. The cricketing tournament has become a space for families to hang out.
Kalaivani, whose stall is one of the busiest on Victoria Hostel Road, picked up this line of work two decades ago from her father. “I have been selling these jerseys since I was 7,” she says.
Around Kalaivani, there are many women like her, some even pregnant, selling Indian jerseys along with those of Chennai Super Kings (CSK), Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), New Zealand and other countries.
An Indian match in Chennai would have been more profitable. But to their surprise, even New Zealand was in high demand this year. “I did not expect New Zealand jerseys to sell off so quickly,” says Kalaivani. Apart from India, CSK merchandise remain the best seller. On a good day, some of them make around Rs 2,000, including their investment.
While the women sell jerseys on one side, their husbands have put up different stalls on the other side. For some, when it's not cricket season, their husbands drive autos for a living. For others, they go around selling toys, dolls, and other small stuff at traffic signals, mostly hoping for a traffic jam that would give them extra time.
Sivaraj (45) has been doing this for over twenty years, long before IPL began. “I started somewhere between 2005 and 2007. Then IPL happened, and the business boomed,” he says. They keep a track of when and what matches are happening around the year, and travel to the places to sell these jerseys. “We go to Bengaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, Hyderabad, Delhi, and other places. We even go for football matches when they happen in Kerala,” he adds. Some travel to Mumbai, Nagpur and Gujarat.
“Some men who know better would buy it in bulk from Tirupur, and then we buy from them. We usually would pay them after a day's sale, and if it doesn't amount to enough, we try to compensate with the next day’s sale,” says Durga, whose husband passed away a few years ago. Both of her kids have also set up their shops somewhere around the stadium. Durga is originally from Triplicane, before moving to Red Hills, where many of these hawkers are settled. There, she learnt the jersey hawking game from her neighbours.
During off seasons, the men sell toys and dolls on the platforms while the women usually stay home, taking care of the kids. A few also take on odd jobs to sustain themselves. When their husbands travel, they go along if finances and time permit. “When it's the IPL season, the schools are usually on a vacation, so my children and I go with my husband on the trip to Bengaluru and other places to sell jerseys there. Then we come back the same day,” says 35-year-old Selvi.
“It is hard to fund our children’s education with the meagre income, but this is the way to secure their future,” says Sivaraj. They want the next generation to create a better life for themselves. “Though I studied through high school, I could not land a job because of my limited English fluency and others having better qualifications. I hope to give my children a better life,” says Kalaivani as she gets busy attending to a bunch of young children crowding her stall.