Cricket.... My association with it....

This blog throws light about my association with cricket since childhood.... Recently played the role of a selector to choose colege cricket team and would be playing hard ball matches in the coming month as part of staff team. This was the motivation for writing the blog....

I am a right hand middle order and medium fast bowler and also a wicket keeper... Can bat left handed as well... Multidimensional cricketer :-):-)

Cricket... It would be ideal to term it as GULLY cricket during childhood... Started playing it since 3rd std... We used to play at Madhu anna's house - our neighbour... Umesha, Kiran, Lokey, Pancha, Sudi, Seena... used to play from 5 to 6.30... It was great fun... New rules made the game more interesting... if u loft the ball above the house height batsman gets out and to hit a six within that height was a challenge indeed... We had a big coconut tree in the playing area and when the ball strucks the tree and goes out of the compound two runs were alloted to the batsman.... In my 5th std when i had a fractured leg, i used to keep wickets and did a terrific job inspite of having a big plaster on my left ankle....

Cricket at High school was very exciting... We had exciting matches with other section of our class... Sudi, atma, patel were our opponents.. We had mahendra, bharatwaj, mahadev swamy, satish in our team... Organized one cricket tournament with Mahendra during 10th std...

During 2nd PUC after the exams we all had joined for CET coaching for a month or so... It was only for name sake.. During that one month we used to play matches with other teams regularly... Hardly attended 2 or 3 classes... Parents believed that we were attending classes regularly... :-)

Then next step was engineering... Bunk classes and play matches with other department teams was the order of the day.. But made sure that i had 75 % attendance all the time... Our goal was to win the competition organized by mechanical dept.. We reached finals once and in my final year we lost it in the semis... In my final year we were the favorites to win the cup. First 3 matches we struggled to win... Used to bat first and in no time we were 3 or 4 down... Then myself with support from Umesh, Arun used to steady the innings and took the team to good total... We bowled well to win matches in this knock out tournament... I couldnt bowl as few months back i had a minor back surgery.... In the semifinal we Batted first and scored around 98 runs in 12 overs... This time our openers sudi and vachan gave a terrific start and in 3 overs of in-field restrictions we had scored 40 runs.... The match went down to the last ball with one run needed but they scored and we lost it... We were disappointed and our goal of winning the cup remain unfulfilled... But as a consolation was awarded batsman of the tournament...

We organized one big cricket tournament in 2000... 14 teams from in and around mandya participated in it.. We also took part in it ... We went to finals but lost it... Had to be contend with runner up title... I was good at playing left handed also... But organizing the cup was a great experience which i will never forget... Immediately after the cup we went to Ooty and enjoyed a lot...

Then joined Nitte in 2002..

In 2003 when India entered finals of the world cup... I went to my home town from Nitte to watch the finals together... Morning we went around the town in a car and few bikes with banners, posters and Indian tri colour flag... Had arranged for watching the match in our neighbours compound.. Unfortunately India lost the match nevertheless it was a treasurable moment..

At nitte, suddenly found myself selecting college team from being a player... Different experience altogether... Went with the college team to Shimoga where we lost it in the quarters... This year our team lost it in the semis... We have a staff team.. April we will be playing in a hard ball tournament at NITK, Suratkal..... We have some good players... Hoping that we can win the cup this time...

Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumble are my favorite cricketers. Critics were labelling Dravid as a fit for only test cricket but he proved everyone wrong... He modified his style for one day cricket and went on to score runs stunning his critics... Anil was criticised for not spinning the ball enough... Today he is the captain of the test team and has 600 wickets... Just shows what hard work can do...

Cricket as they say is a passion in India... Its true in my case as well... Hoping to continue my long association with cricket in the coming years...