Curtain raiser - Ganguly Gladiators - LOBA cricket smash 2025

To be honest, the second season of the LOBA cricket tournament took me by surprise with the dust having settled from the first one which was hardly 6 months back. Right at the onset itself about half of the team said that they are unavailable this time around which meant new team members had to be added.

The run up to the event was rather tepid compared to the previous edition. There were a couple of practise matches one day prior, including members from all the teams at Loyola school. With only 3 of my team members turning up was not helping our cause either. My intention was to bowl a bit get a few good hits and most importantly getting my fielding right. With the team captain Arjun walking in towards the end of the session it became a sort of audition for me be it batting, bowling our fielding. I put my heart and soul into it to impress upon him to give me more overs to bowl compared to last time. At the end of the session I was worried if I may have over done it. The fact of the matter was that in about 12 hours our first match would start the next day and my muscles were aching with the exertion.

The day dawned upon us, and I was one of the first people to make it to the ground. Aravind our fast-bowling allrounder turns up with a bruise in his face. He was involved in a motor accident yesterday. Faizi our fiery fast-bowling allrounder, doing his Masters in Communications design in Bangalore travelled 16 hours in a crammed general compartment bursting at its seams due to the independence day extended weekend to be with us. Seeing them my travails from yesterday seemed miniscule.

Asked to bat was a first for our team because we had batted second in all our matches last season. Thanks to a captain’s innings by Arjun 29(14) coupled with some handy scores by Dhansh and Abhijith we managed to post an at par score of 73 at the end of 8 overs. In response the Dravid Dominators catapulted to 44/6 in 8 hours primarily due to sustained pressure from our bowlders all through the innings. Our guest player Abhijith scalped 3 wickets ably supported by Aravind and Faizi with 1 wicket each. An interesting fact of this match was that Aravind was playing against his father our dearest Anilkumar sir who was a guest player in the opposite team. With the first match done we had a gap of 2 matches before back to back matches in the blazing sun.

Post breakfast walking back to the ground Aravind and Faizi recounted to me the exploits from way back in 2016.  Unsurprisingly both of them were part of the Loyola cricket team in their 12th standard. It so happened that Loyola hosted the finals of a cricket tournament because of the bad ground conditions of the host ground due to heavy rains. Our school was competing against another school in the city. The match went to the wire and we won in the last ball of the match. The crowd erupted and entered the ground hoisting the team members on their shoulders.

However, in the background a storm was brewing the teacher accompanying the visiting team raised a technical error with the scoring due to which they should be declared winners. But our boys stood their ground and did not budge from being the rightful winners. They didn’t even pay heed to the advice our teaching staff present who wanted the team to forfeit the match as a graceful host. Tensions flared and an impasse ensued. Finally, the match was declared a tie and there would be a rematch to decide the winners.

Suddenly it all made sense to me as to why every ball the batsman misses to the keeper is appealed vociferously every single run is contested like their life depended on it.  Take for instance in our first match our captain had an altercation with his classmate Aalif, a resident of Singapore who turned up for our opposing team out of pure nostalgia. Arjun the bowler and the wicket keeper Dhansh are sure that Aalif has nicked the ball and are appealing incessantly. I have no clue since I am fielding at mid off but join the appeal whole heartedly.

At times things threaten to go out of hand which made one of our seniors Pradeep Suthan quip that from there should be a snickometer in place from the next edition onwards because that is one area where highest number of arguments take place. On the flip side I have also started to believe that this intensity is good because that means that the players really care about what is happening every ball. Greatly helps me to stay young because you tend to become a sceptic owing to your experiences over so many years. But such things help me to be present at every moment I am in the cricket ground and all the more worthwhile.

                                                                                                                        (To be continued......)

Being part of a champion cricket team

During the announcement of the Loyola cricket tournament the moment it was mentioned that there is going to be a player auction my heart sank. Back in school lacking any batting or bowling skills, no one wanted to pick me. In fact I was always the last one to be picked in a team. Not to give up easily, I decided to join the Saturday morning cricket games at Loyola with the intention of at least showcasing a bit of my bowling prowess which I had been honing at the cricket nets every Sunday for a good part of last year. On the first day my fielding sucked I bungled an easy catch . Bowling with the tennis ball and cricket ball is as different as chalk and cheese.My bowling was horrible and gave up any hopes at the upcoming auction .The same deja vu feeling haunted me after possibly more than 25 years.

I was relieved to see my name in the team list of Ganguly gladiators. .As luck would have it the manager of the team was Hari who had seen me bowling at the nets once. Everyone was new to me except for a few familiar names like Fayaz, Murali who were from GG house and the captain Arjun who had let me bowl in the Saturday game.

With a week to go for the tournament the first team meeting was a virtual one on the day of the Champions trophy final where very few team members turned up. We decided that there would be a net session on the coming Tuesday and a really productive one but at least 4 members of the team were missing. This was a huge confidence booster for me as I was able to bowl my heart out and gain some really good confidence which was at its lowest earlier in the week.

At the practice matches onThursday 2 new team members joined us. The practice matches helped us really to gel well as a team and bring out a decent performance. I was living out one of my wildest childhood dreams of having opened the batting and bowling in a match. The biggest plus point of the team was the team captain Arjun who was a fantastic leader encouraging and putting at ease everyone in the team.

Sitting from Left to Right- Karthick, Lawrence, Dhansh

Standing from Left to Right- Angelo, Arjun, Murali, Fayaz, Vignesh, Hari, Rohit, Aravind

The Match day started for us with a small huddle where the Team manager Hari handed out the jerseys to each of the team members with everyone applauding . Undoubtedly, you got a feeling that you were part of something big. This team huddle became an integral part of our day with one happening at the beginning and end of all the matches .

We chose bowling in our first match of the day owing to the fact that we had back to back matches. This was the first masterstroke of the day by our captain Arjun. His rationale being that since we are playing back to back matches he didn’t want us to be fielding 2nd in the first match and fielding first in the second match. For the first match of the day against Dravid Dominators catches were being dropped left right and center possibly due to impostor syndrome. Murali’s 3 wickets and 2 fantastic catches by Dhansh managed to restrict the total to a manageable 84 runs in 8 overs. A blistering knock of Arjun who scored 57 of 21 balls and a cameo by Dhansh 16(7) ensured that we romped home by an over to spare.

Even before we could savour the success of the first match we were on the field for the second match with Tendulkar Trailblazers. A disciplined bowling effort by Aravind and Karthick who scalped 2 wickets each ensured that we had to chase a target of 80. This was also the beginning of some fantastic catching in the deep by Fayaz(2) and Karthik (1) which was a constant feature in the subsequent matches till the very end of the tournament. We didn’t get the best of starts with the openers back in the pavilion cheaply. Karthick 23(17) anchored the innings with Arjun 14(5) and Fayaz 29 (12) going all guns blazing. By the 6th over it appeared that we would comfortably romp home.But cricket is a funny game . A couple of run outs including one brilliant direct hit from the deep by Kiran Padmanabhan brought the equation to 1 run from 5 balls .I came in as the last man with the last over being bowled by their captain Sreejith.The Tendulkar Trailblazers could smell blood they pulled all the fielders in to prevent the single . The pressure was building as the bowling team took its sweet time to set the field. There was pin drop silence as the spectators were on the edge of their seats. Ball pitched outside off, I pierced the infield with a square cut to notch up a tense victory. After the winning runs I let out a feral cry and tried to make a David Warner jump but pulled out at the last moment. As I walked back to applause my captain remarked that he knew that I could pull it off. We got a well deserved break after back to back matches in the scorching sun.

We had already qualified for the final so our third match was a dead rubber but we didn’t want to let up the intensity. I got to bowl a couple of overs and picked up 3 wickets thanks to some fantastic catching by Karthick in the deep. The school boy in me who was disappointed all those years back in this very ground was thrilled to bits. I enjoyed the high fives all around. Thanks to some lusty blows towards the end by Abhilash and Karan we were set a target of 77. The entire batting order was rejigged and Hari opened the batting while I came in 1 down. In spite of some wonderful hits by Arjun 20(13), Vignesh 19(5), Fayaz 17 (8) we fell short of the target by 8 runs.

The final saw us fielding first for the 4th time in as many matches in the day. Tendulkar Trailblazers got into a rollicking start and we felt the pressure of the final has been getting the better of us. But as always Arjun led from the front and picked up 2 wickets. Fayaz bowled 2 overs for 17 picking up a wicket and we managed to pull them back to 98 in 8 overs. This was the biggest team total that we had to chase the tournament. Everyone was tensed but Arjun put us at ease saying that we only needed to score 13 runs per over for a win.Oblivious of losing both the openers at 8 runs Fayaz 36*(12) and Arjun 33 (17) played some breathtaking cricket to keep us within the required run rate for the next 4 overs. Just when we thought that Arjun would take us over the line we lost his wicket with 18 runs from the target in the middle of the 6th over. But Murali had other plans he finished off the game with a hat trick of sixes to our delight .Ganguly Gladiators were crowned the maiden champions of the LOBA* summer cricket tournament.

*LOBA- Loyola Old Boys Association

Post final scenes

Looking back

At the onset itself I don’t think that winning the championship was even remotely in the back of our minds when we joined for our first virtual team meeting. Most of us were meeting each other for the first time during the net session on the Tuesday before the tournament. The practice matches with our eventual finalists, the Tendulkar Trailblazers two days before the tournament, was the first time we were playing as a team.

The key was definitely the leadership team of Captain Arjun and Manager Hari who managed to motivate a team of individuals who have come together for the tournament within say a span of 10 days. Arjun, our captain, was cool as a cucumber all throughout . Finest example was during the finals inspiring the team to restrict the score to a manageable total after some expensive overs. Hari's support was invaluable right from the team selection at the auction to the finals. Fielding except for the first match was top class. Catches at the deep were wonderful. Net practise and the practise match with the finalists was the X-factor I believe. Everyone knew each other which greatly helped. Rather than individual brilliance everyone chipped in at crucial times . There were also some fine individual performances too.This was a classic example of individual brilliance would win you matches but team effort will win you championships .

Winners huddle

Raising the cup