Strategising over a cup of coffee

Well as we had decided in the six week long break we needed to come up with some good strategies about where we were lacking and the general plan on our preparedness. With the relatively low work pressure on account of the Christmas and New Year week we had some time to quickly have a small team meet on our strategies. We met in the break room over a cup of coffee.
Kaptaan sahab was back from his marriage and a month long India trip. He was initially talking abt going in the semi-retirement mode but it was hardly a week and when we discussed with him what he had missed over a month the itch made its way back and he quickly turned into cricket mode. He was present for the practice match with Apollo just in his first week-end back. With his comeback, however, came back his re-renewed desire to go up the order - even though theres really no room there. Up the order would mean disturbing the intact working upper order. We are thinking of offering him any spot between 1 to 6 except 1,2,3,4,5,6 since they are already occupied ;-). The batting order was- in the sequence- Omair and Sam as openers followed by Ganesh, then Rajender, followed by Vivek or Bosco, followed by Sukrit. Which meant the next available slot was no 7 which in fact was one lower than his initial order. And it seemed it didn't matter that no 7 was actually lower order at least as long as it was single digited!!!

Sukrit was thinking of ordering 2 dozen practice balls - which I thought were enough for next 4 leagues considering the (ir)regularity of our regular(?) practice sessions. While we already had 7 balls left of the previous dozen - which I thought were enough to outlive the LB guys life here. An extra dozen balls I thought were enough to outlive even the Ness guys (considering how fast the preferred vendor changes)and the 2 dozen would live to see the day of exit of the next vendor.

One interesting futuristic thought evolving out of this was how would the team be when we would have been using last remaining of the 2 dozen balls. Sukrit would be part of the league organisers(anyone can guess seeing his enthu and that the organizers are often looking out for guys who take initiatives) while Keshav will still be replying to mails from his iPhone (iPhone8G that is). While Saurabh still realising his dream of moving up the order finally reaching 6, since the Wipro guy at no. 6 was flying back since his knowledge transition to the new Cognizant guy would have been over.

We also decided to order wicket keepers gloves. In the league matches the lack of gloves meant we always were looked down upon as the poorer cousins, who somehow make it and cant afford a kit. The keepers gloves seem to make a team look professional. Atleast our "looks" are professional if not our game. Borrowing from other teams was our Shaan ke Khilaaf. And also against our theory that the keeper doesn't really need a glove to catch/stop a tennis ball. Although the real reason was that we were on a tight budget. Also the lack of gloves made us feel like Milkha Singh -one who has talent and will fight, run and win - shoe or no shoe.

We also decided for the twenty-seventh time this season that we need to practise more. The twenty-sixth such plan for which I had contributed by writing an inspirational mail to the team about the importance of practice had went for a toss because I was watching Avatar in IMax-3D at Harkins Theatre exactly at the same moment as the planned execution time of that plan.

Equations in the league seem to have changed in the past few days with some of the minnows causing upsets by defeating teams at the top of the table and so our path to the knock-outs is now more harder. We now have to defeat not only these so-called under-dogs but also a couple of the top teams to comfortably reach the quarters. We have our next league match next week-end with the Stragglers - the only winless team in the tournament so far and no wonder they are at the bottom of the table. Considering our last win was also against the then bottom-of-the-league team we have hopes, but the only cause for worry is that we are going in this match with absolutely no match practice just hoping they don't do to us what Zimbabwe and Bangladesh did to India in the 99 and 2007 World Cups respectively.

Mix n match

With no match for almost six weeks the best we could do to stay in touch with cricket was to have some practice games. Had a joint practice session with the Apollos team today. This mix and match seems to be a really innovative idea. Its hard to get 11 guys in place on a game day, ever so harder for a practice match. And when you are practicing with only your team you actually need more so we can split and have a decent match. In the past this lack of players forced us to play shorter practice games(6 or 10 overs a side) which forced the batsmen to go all out from ball one -an approach which was the reason for our fall in the league games. With truncated overs, non-regular bowlers bowling and less than 11 fielders, it never matched an actual match scenario. Also the problem of practising within ourselves was that we had got used to each other - to each others strengths and weaknesses. Practice sessions amongst ourselves wasnt actually helping us - the actual match scenario was always a new one coz it was totally different from the practise games and players often had no clue, so we had to learn it the hard way - from the actual league games itself.

We found a solution to all this when we got a proposal from the Apollo guys for a joint practice session. They it seemed faced the same of our problems above. It was nice to play against a new set of batsmen and bowlers. It was also nice to see us win- the feeling is good- even though we know its just a practise match!!!

Cricket for a cause

Well we were supposed to have a month and a half long break from the league, but then it seems the cricketing itch doesnt seem to keep us away from the grounds longer. The Arizona Cricket Association, given their popularity in the east valley, was approached by the Indo American Foundation of Arizona to help them out during their 6th Annual Charity Walk. They arrange a 5K Walk every year to support local shelters in the valley and homeless youths and raise funds for them. And what other better way to garner support amongst the desis here than cricket. They proposed a so called All-Stars game after the Walk, with players from all the teams of the league participating.
All the teams in the league were asked to nominate a few players and two teams were formed. Although it wasn't really competitive cricket we were sure the participants were going to go hard on each other to keep the crowds happy. It also presented an oppurtunity to play infront of some semblance of an audience. Otherwise there is hardly anyone who has time to watch our league games(except the occasional wives).
It was fun to play with and cheer for players who we'd played against in the league, but I'd say it was more fun to play opposite someone wearing a Chandler Bulls T-shirt. You dont know where your loyalties lie. For a moment when I was fielding I was supporting Vivek, who was batting beautifully but incidentally was playing for our opponents - the India XI(we were the Desi XI), and when Sukrit came to bowl while I was batting, well - it was either he or me, coz he was coming hard at me and I had to save my wicket.
Everyone got a chance with the bat or to roll their arms and the result didn't matter, in the end as they say - cricket won.
Here are some of the snaps from the match.


Our own Hero Hiralal - Sukrit executing one of those stylish shots. He seems to be the only one from our team who got a nice close-up solo shot, otherwise the other guys seem to be supporting artists lurking somewhere in the background in the group photos.


Both the teams-

With the guests and the handful of spectators-


P.S. The food after the match was good. Tasted Samosas after a long time.....