Interview with two dedicated cricketing brains: Mihir & Vinay, the founder of Filtercricket

Interview with two dedicated cricketing brains: Mihir & Vinay, the founder of Filtercricket
Vinay Chhabria (left) and Mihir Bhanushali (right)

Vinay Chhabria and Mihir Bhanushali are young entrepreneurs from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, and the founder of Filtercricket. They are very passionate about cricket, so that thought of starting working on a business plan related to sports. Vinay and Mihir got success at a very young age. Interview with two dedicated cricketing brains: Mihir & Vinay, the founder of Filtercricket.

Vinay Chhabria Personal Information

Full Birth NameVinay Deepak Chhabria
NicknameVinay
Age20
HometownAhmedabad
NationalityIndian
Best FriendMihir Bhanushali
Favorite CelebritiesMS Dhoni, AB de Villiers
Favorite FoodPuranpoli
Star Sign (Zodiac Sign)Cancer
HobbiesWatching sports and writing
Dream Holiday DestinationAustralia, New Zealand
Favorite Color Blue

Mihir Bhanushali Personal Information

Full Birth NameMihir Pankaj Bhanushali
NicknameMihir
Age21
HometownAhmedabad 
Star Sign (Zodiac Sign)Leo
NationalityIndian
Best FriendVinay Chhabria
HobbiesReading, Badminton
Favorite CelebritiesVirat Kohli and MS Dhoni
Favorite ColorLight Blue
Dream Holiday DestinationEurope 

Founder of FilterCricket – Mihir Bhanushali & Vinay Chhabria

Digital Guruji : Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from and where did you grow up? 

Mihir Bhanushali : Hello, my name is Mihir Bhanushali. I am from Ahmedabad, Gujarat. I was born and brought up here itself. 

Vinay Chhabria : Hey, my name is Vinay Chhabria. I live in Ahmedabad as well and was born and brought here itself. 

Digital Guruji : How did this all begin? What started your Entrepreneurial journey?

Mihir Bhanushali : We were big fans of Rishabh Pant and the way he played cricket. His rise has been one of the biggest talking points in world cricket. However, there weren’t many fan clubs of Rishabh. So, we started off by creating a fan page of Rishabh Pant. 

Vinay Chhabria : We always had a passion for cricket. And after that, we created Filtercricket. 

Digital Guruji : How was filtercricket founded? It would be helpful for people if you share your filtercricket journey.

Vinay Chhabria : We follow many cricket-related pages on social media. However, as users ourselves, we thought there is something more we can offer to the cricket fans. And during the lockdown period last year, we made up our minds to create filtercricket. 

Digital Guruji : What does filtercricket do?

Mihir Bhanushali : The name filtercricket clearly shows our mindset at the time of the page’s creation. At a time when there was so much negativity everywhere, we thought of filtering the positivity from the cricketing world and presenting it to our audience via attractive posts on social media. 

Filtercricket provides lesser-known facts about young cricketers, light-hearted comments from cricket players, and listicle-type carousels to the cricket audience. We currently have more than 135,000 followers on Instagram, plus there are millions we reach through the Explore section.

Digital Guruji :  What were the challenges that you faced initially and how did you overcome them?

Mihir Bhanushali : The main challenge was always the timing. Consistency is the key to success in any field, and more so in social media pages. So, the primary issue was posting at the right time. There have been times when we missed the timing and the posts did not work, but our passion kept us going and finally we became more consistent with timings. 

Digital Guruji :  How do you define success? Are you satisfied with your achievements? What is your most significant success to date?

Vinay Chhabria : Success for us has always been the contentment of our followers and luckily our content has reached the ones who inspire our content. Cricketers like Virat Kohli, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan, and Shahbaz Ahmed have seen and liked our content. 

That is a significant success, and another important achievement has been the opportunity to work with some top-tier companies, including the Global T20 Canada League. We have also made promotional posts for T20 World Cup and IPL. 


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Digital Guruji :  What are your biggest achievements and falls in your journey?

Mihir Bhanushali : The biggest fall for us was the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on our page. It was very hard to keep going because the engagement and reach were nowhere near the previous figures. And, our biggest achievement is that we did not stop at that time. Although the odds were against us, we used to have discussions full day on the phone, sometimes even around midnight, regarding the content strategy. Finally, after 2-3 months, the numbers rose, and during IPL 2020, we had our best season of all time. 

Digital Guruji :  How has been the support from friends and family? 

Vinay Chhabria : Our families have always supported us. They have allowed us to follow our passion and work on something that we love. Most of our friends follow our page as well. 

Digital Guruji :  If you had a magic stick, which are the two things you would change in the world?

Mihir Bhanushali : Well, if we had a magic stick, we would love to increase the amount of positivity on social media. Day by day, we see an increase in trolls and negative comments everywhere. But if we had a magic stick we would turn the negative ones into positive ones.

The second thing would again be about social media activity only. We have noticed on many occasions that users do not even read the full post or news and share their views in the comments. Maybe if they could take that minute to read the news properly instead of commenting straightaway, a lot of misunderstandings may not happen.

Digital Guruji :  If you had the chance to start your career over again, what would you do differently? 

Vinay Chhabria : If we could, we would definitely start early. It has been a fun and learning journey. We have learned a lot of things. There have been a lot of ups and downs, and it has been a great experience. Perhaps, we could have started a year earlier maybe. 

Digital Guruji : What inspires you? Whose work has influenced you most?

Mihir Bhanushali : While we are big fans of Rishabh Pant, MS Dhoni has always been our biggest inspiration. The way he leads plays and thinks about the game is unbelievable. His quote which inspires us the most is – “Take action in silence, no lion attacks in noise.”

Digital Guruji :  Tell us how a day in your life looks like? Your schedule for a day right from the time you get up till you hit the bed at night.

Vinay Chhabria : After working on filtercricket for such a long time, we have now created a proper schedule, wherein we have allocated post timings to each other. Mihir usually handles the morning and afternoon posts, whereas Vinay takes care of the evening and night posts. During the IPL and international matches season, we both are active for almost the entire day.  We are now very good at creating posts in quick time, so we adjust our schedules accordingly to accommodate the post creation and posting durations. 

Digital Guruji :  If you were given a choice of meeting any person you want, who will be that person?

Mihir Bhanushali : It would be great if we could meet any Indian cricketer in person, but if you ask us to be specific, it would be MS Dhoni. 


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Digital Guruji :  What is the biggest misconception that you think people have about you?

Vinay Chhabria : The biggest misconception that people have about us is that we are the ‘insiders’. We are just two individuals covering the sport and presenting updates and facts to the people. We are not in touch with any players or franchises or team management members who send us information. Yes, we dig a lot about players on the internet, and through that way, we are able to provide so much information.

Digital Guruji :  What is your greatest fear, and how do you manage fear?

Mihir Bhanushali : There’s no particular fear as such, but while taking any big risk, there is a lot of fear. Like what if things do not go as we have planned. But we have managed that fear by taking the risks and focusing on the things that are in our hands. Eventually, the result has been good. 

Digital Guruji :  Tell us about your learning’s in this entrepreneurship journey.

Vinay Chhabria : We have learned a lot of things. Staying consistent is absolutely necessary, you cannot take a vacation or even off days. Also, you need to engage with the people who follow you, who like your posts, who comment, and who ask you questions. These are little things that help a lot. 

Digital Guruji :  What next? What are your future goals? 

Mihir Bhanushali : Our goal is to continue what we are doing and improve in the areas where we can. The future seems exciting for sure. 

Digital Guruji :  What advice would you like to give our young readers?

Vinay Chhabria : Our advice would be number one to stay consistent, number two to do the thing you love the most and never stop doing it and number three would be not to take others’ opinions too seriously. Focus on the positives, ignore the negatives. Yes, if someone offers constructive criticism, acknowledge the ideas and see if you can improve. Never stop learning.

Here Ends the Interview with two dedicated cricketing brains: Mihir & Vinay, the founder of filtercricket.

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