Early in the morning. Fog still above the lush
green. A slow but a promising sunrise. 15
men in all white. 22 yards of perfectly
maintained pitch. Umpires checking the
intensity of the light on the field. Thousands
of spectators already seated. Waiting eagerly
of cour s e , for t he game t o s ta r t .
Commentators and the television crews. And
a huge television screen.
Well…cool huh?? Wake up..!!
Our men will be with drop dead gorgeous
ladies on an exotic island…sipping the best
martinis and life seems so perfect. Suddenly a
dreadful and voted unanimously by the team,
as the most loathed noise in the world,
shatters all that...
Good dreams and damn those phone calls
from Manideep!!!
Late but loyal to the game, the men turn up
one after the other and start playing.
Saturdays start with surplus spirit. It wouldn’t
matter if there’s no mention of the boys and
their skills.
Firstly, Mr. Bharadwaj almost always happens
to be the first pick by the toss winning captain
(usually the corrupt QL who bats twice and
always gets bowled by Vinay) and impresses
everyone with his scintillating performances
both on the field and off the field (wants to be
at the Oscars one day). Secondly, the best
left-handed batsman (the only one) in team
Bibhu, hits the ball all over the field. A
nightmare to the bowlers if he clicks. Then
comes the losing captain (never wins the
toss) Phani (AKA Salim bhai) with his rather
unique style of fielding stops everything that
looks and moves like a cricket ball . Then of
course the Freeman Hari – gives runs freely.
Raju – the Jonty Rhodes, somehow manages
to evade the ball even if it stops in front of
him with a board that reads “Please catch
me”. Naveen displays some fine strokes.
Mukul – the kind-hearted-nawab who’s very
generous with the ball. Manideep, the fastest
runner (runs at a blazing speed of 0.1 miles an
hour), but a good fielder. Sudeep, though a
recent but a valuable addition to the team.
And of course – Anil, Pritesh, Atul, Tridip,
Nikhil (the all-round-er).
These hard(ly)-working men who define
commitment (at least they show up at the
field), punctuality (ok, they tune up to the
middle-east time zone) and spirit (not what
they down on Friday nites) of the game, make
all Saturdays, the days to be cherished.….
