really hot cricket

I have finally finished the travelogue which I have been writing for over two months now. It was about the Ardh Kumbh that I had gone for with my good friend Vinu. It’s definitely not any great piece of work but I loved writing it. hope I am able to write more such stuff in the future. If any of you is interested in reading it then do mail me and I would be happy to send you the pdf file.


Yesterday we had a cricket match. It was a 20 over affair. In the morning on the ground I get a call saying that some of the seniors would not be coming in and that I am the captain. With two main bowlers and two main batsmen missing, it was my job to take the team forward. Oh hell. I was not even mentally prepared for the job. I had no thoughts in my mind on how I was to take this forward. But it was fun nevertheless. I could see my maturity improving in the game. I could see my abilities improving and looking at batsmen and making field placing accordingly. In cricket as a captain I have a very strong role model. It is my captain Arun Solanki through which I owe everything. For me being eth captain was about telling each team what is expected and trying to play on strengths. We were definitely a weak team but managed to do quit a bit. First thing, since we were the minnows and we barely had 11 people turning up, the first thing was about conserving energies. No sledging and no frustration to be shown on the pitch. We had our share of dropped catches. My instructions were clearly not to scream at the guy but to go on and encourage them to be better. No kicking, no abuse, nothing, but focus on the game. The objective is not to win but to perform to your best and if that results in victory then fair enough. When you are putting on your minnow’s hat I think the game is more internal than external. You have to do your best irrespective of the surrounding or the opponent. It’s the same everywhere. Even at the job. If you are the underdog, or small fry, its pointless trying to compete with the big guys. The smarter thing is to conserve resources, take a small niche and dig deep and real hard. I love the simple V graph showing the relation between ROI and market share. The big few will have the highest ROI along with the last few niche players. The ones in between are in our jargon called the ditch. You play the ditch you die in the ditch. Therefore my goal was simple. This is just the league, not the knockout, let’s get the player to understand themselves more than anything else, play to their strengths and take back positives. Surprisingly, we ran them very close, losing by a very small margin. More importantly we went back with positives with what we achieved in bowling. We went back with amazing learning on bowling to field placings. Almost through the 20 overs I kept a 6 – 3 field placing dominating the off side. The leg side was only deep fine leg, a square leg and widish mid on. With huge leg side gaps, as Arun often said, ‘dum hai toh maar’. Play across the line. This field placing would have been butchered if the bowlers bowled short on middle and leg. But it worked like a dream. The off side cordon was within the circle almost all the time. The bowlers with the placing knew exactly where to bowl and what I expected them to do. We got wickets with people playing across the line, people trying to pierce the cordon and cutting straight deliveries and through frustration. I think as a captain, in field placings purely it was the best day of my cricketing life. Life is as simple….. get the guys to play their individual best, conserve and look to take positives, give clear and simple instructions and back for performance. You cannot place fielders for bad balls all the time. Then you have lost it before you even started. One team guy kept telling me to take point to short point and get the covers back to deep after one shot found a gap through the ring. My answer was “ek shot tha boss, that too it was not a brilliant cut piercing the infield. Weak shot. Luck got it through. Wait and see” and sure enough the guy frustrated with the infield and got out trying whacking it over.
It was also one of the hottest periods of time I have ever batted. The Midday sun was at its worst ever with the sun beating down and transforming the ground in to a steam sauna room. I went in at number four, and saw five six and seven fold up in front of me. The game was on singles with the number 8 to accompany me. We took a lot of singles and doubles. The fast running in the heat completely killed me. I had no strength left in my arms to clear the ground and for power shots. I normally back myself up to clear the ground and I have hit enough on many occasions. I hit an odd boundary when necessary but too few and far in between. The heat was just killing me. The crazy running between the wickets just finished me off. I also guess a little age is showing. I need to get much fitter if I have to prolong my cricket. Carnival 7 a side cricket will always be manageable but a 20 over full ground cricket in oppressive midday heat will be tougher if I let my fitness leave me. I might easily amongnst the fastest runner and fielder in the team but clearly the team is hardly a bench mark; I need to better myself. kuch karma padega on a regular basis. I dived to prevent my self being run out and then was happy to remain there for a few minutes. The sweat was pouring in droves. It kept getting in the eyes. I stopped the bowler on a few occasions but the sweat kept pouring. I played a few one eyed shots with my left eye blurry. It was sure tough. Its good thing that the mind kept going in spite of the body failing. More positives to take away.

I did not know tomorrow is a holiday until one of the bachas mentioned it to me at office. Earlier I used to mark out and know the holidays way in advance. Now I have no clue… oh god what a monster have I become?