Breaking Into Cricketland: A Spanish Executive's Attempt to Sell Football in India

A captivating memoir of how José Antonio Cachaza brought LaLiga to India, blending sports, culture, and personal transformation.
on Jun 11, 2026

How do you make LaLiga a household name in India, where entertainment revolves around two great secular religions: Cricket and Bollywood?
When José Antonio Cachaza arrived to lead the Spanish football league’s expansion, he knew from the very beginning that he wasn’t there to sell a sport - he was there to sell emotions. In India, one of the few major markets where football is not king, success demanded more than a sound business strategy; it required immersion into the country’s soul.
For seven years, Cachaza navigated the vibrant extremes of Indian life. He lived as a local, moving by metro and autorickshaw, bargaining in neighbourhood markets, eating in roadside dhabas. At the same time, his journey brought him into contact with the social, cultural, and sporting elite, including some demi-gods of the country’s dual faiths: Rohit Sharma, Kapil Dev, Arjun Kapoor, and Ranveer Singh.
Narrated with humility and quiet humour, Breaking Into Cricketland is a story of professional ambition and personal transformation—an insider’s account of the sports business, and an outsider’s gaze at a country that resists simple explanations.