Beyond the Blues
Absorbing Agartala
There’s something peculiar about the houses in this part of the country
Aakash Chopra
25-Feb-2013
Dear readers,
We’re in Agartala for the knock-out rounds of the Vijay Hazare trophy. For those who are not aware Agartala - the capital of Tripura - is located in the far east of India. One needs to take a flight from Kolkata and fly over Bangladesh to reach here. We realised its proximity to our neighboring country as soon as we landed. The network for mobile phones, if not selected manually, tends to log onto Grameen, the telecom service provider in Bangladesh. So if you’re not careful you might end up paying a lot of money for making and receiving calls under the international roaming rates.
Personally, I like coming to the smaller, lesser known places in this vast land. Only cricket could have given us the opportunity to travel all over and get acquainted with various local cultures. There’s something peculiar about the houses (on the outskirts) in this part of the country. Since land is not at a premium the houses are built on a big compound with enough space for a garden. Invariably there are a couple of coconut trees in every compound and the boundary walls are made of bamboo. Those bamboo boundary walls – some of the smaller shops have them too - make a statement: we trust each other. It reminds me of the tradition in a small island called Nevis in the Caribbean, where locking your car is taken as an insult by the others.
The houses in the city center are just like any other across the country but the houses in the outskirts tell you a different story.
Full postPicturesque venues, tiresome travel
The Ranji one-day matches for North Zone were conducted in Himachal Pradesh this year
Aakash Chopra
25-Feb-2013
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The snow-covered peaks in the backdrop add to the charm of playing cricket in this mountain city. The hotel we chose to stay in was about half an hour's drive away from the ground and driving in that kind of terrain can be a bit of a bother for some, but once you set foot on the ground, everything else fades into oblivion. I must mention here that a lot of thinking and hard work has gone into building this facility and other associations can take a cue on just how much can be achieved if one has vision and the passion. The track is also almost ideal to play cricket on as it offers enough for everyone in the business. It won't be long before an international match or a national camp is held here.
The tournament finishes in nine days as the matches are held on every alternate day and if the rest day in-between includes travelling, it can get gruelling for the players. Contrary to popular belief, a one-day match takes a lot out of a player and the lack of adequate rest and time to recover can lead to injuries and fatigue. One might suggest a player-rotation system but with selection for the Deodhar Trophy, the one-day zonal tournament, at stake one can't afford to take a break because in the end it's all about the numbers: how many runs and how many wickets a player took.
As I mentioned earlier, we played our first two games at Dharamsala and the third match was held at Una which is three hours from Dharamsala. Since the hotel at Una is adjacent to the city's bus station we tried to spend as little time in Una as possible. The incessant honking of the vehicles deprives you of much needed sleep after the game.
Full postEnjoying it while it lasts
It's not just the cricket one would miss (once one decides to call it a day), but also the days spent sweating it out for and with one’s team-mates on the field - even during practice sessions, spending hours on the roads, trains, flights and
Aakash Chopra
25-Feb-2013
Dear friends
Talking about cities and suchlike certainly isn't my cup of tea, but having returned to this splendidly beautiful place, Dharamsala, I felt obliged to write something about this place, to share my feelings with pen and paper, or monitor and keyboard as it is for me now.
Full postWhat price cricket balls?
The Kookaburra is a good idea all right, but it is a luxury that is not supposed to be enjoyed during the practice sessions
Aakash Chopra
25-Feb-2013
Dear readers
In the previous post I wrote about the decision, taken a couple of years ago, to use the Kookaburra ball in the Duleep Trophy. We were excited about this change, but we faced a strange situation right at the beginning. These Kookaburra balls are really expensive - over Rs 3000 - and hence were not made available for use in our practice sessions, even on the days before the matches. It was a little bizarre to practise with an SG Test ball when the game was to be played with the Kookaburra. But who were we to complain, and more importantly to whom?
Full postDecoding the SG and Kookaburra
Aakash Chopra
25-Feb-2013
Dear readers,
A couple of years ago the BCCI decided to use Kookaburra balls in the Duleep Trophy to give our domestic players a feel of this type of ball, as at the international level, except for the Test cricket played in India and England, this ball is commonly used.
We, in India, use the SG Test ball and England plays with either a Duke or a Readers ball (these two are quite similar to the SG Test balls used in India). But even that is restricted only to the red balls because the shorter formats all over the world are played with the white Kookaburra ball.
Full postNo longer the national tournament
Now that the Ranji format has changed it has become a national tournament in the true sense of the word
Aakash Chopra
25-Feb-2013
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Dear readers
When I started playing first-class cricket about a decade ago, the whole purpose of playing Ranji Trophy was to do enough to get picked for North Zone in Duleep Trophy. The Ranji format was different back then. Teams were divided into zones, and would play each other before the top two qualified for the knock-outs. Hence the media coverage was also restricted to the matches in the particular zone. For example we would rarely get to know about the matches happening in the south or east. I'm sure it must have been the same for other zones too.
Doing well was important and one got noticed all right, but only in his respective zone - unless someone did something out of the ordinary, something like a triple-century or 15 wickets in a match. The knock-out matches were always pretty important, but there were only a handful of teams involved.
Full postHow I wrote <i>Beyond the Blues</i>
It was a landmark season with Delhi winning the Ranji Trophy after 16 years, North Zone clinching the Duleep Trophy, and me ending up being the highest run-scorer
Aakash Chopra
25-Feb-2013
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Though this post has probably got nothing to do with domestic cricket, my book most certainly does have. I'll take the liberty of taking you through the journey of how Beyond the Blues happened. At the insistence of Siddhartha Vaidyanathan, a friend and former Cricinfo journalist, I started keeping a diary for the 2007-08 first-class season.
Even though I had read quite a few rather popular diaries in England, I was sceptical about the interest such a book would generate with the Indian reading audience. People in India don't follow domestic cricket as closely as they do in England and perhaps that's why there has never been a book written about India's domestic cricket. The second issue preventing me from writing the book was the discipline and effort it would require. I knew that once started, I had to commit myself to write almost everyday, and that included days when I would come back home knackered after the day’s play, days when I would fail on the field and writing would be the last thing on my mind and on days when nothing of note would happen and hence would find it equally difficult to write.
But when I did start writing eventually, little did I know that it would become a book some day. I started writing notes at the end of the day and started enjoying it. Within two months into the season I had written over 20,000 words and that's when I realised I needed to see it through till the end. Writing at the end of a day's play was keeping me on my toes during the day as well. Though I wrote on days when I didn't do well, it wasn't a happy feeling. I would constantly tell myself that it would read quite badly in the end if I have a poor season; that I'm commenting and recording everyone's performances while I scored only a handful of runs. A very scary thought indeed. Not that it prevented me from nicking the ball outside off-stump to the keeper, but it did add that extra focus to do well.
Full postWhen God is the man 22 yards away
They say 'To err is human, to forgive divine’ and that's concretely manifested in almost every first-class game played in India
Aakash Chopra
25-Feb-2013
Dear readers,
We, Indians, are always looking for divinity in everything. We make Gods out of normal human beings and treat the game as a religion of sorts. Following the same trend even deeper I can clearly see divinity at work in first-class cricket. They say 'To err is human, to forgive divine’ and that's concretely manifested in almost every first-class game played in India.
Full postQuantum of support
Dear readers,
Aakash Chopra
25-Feb-2013
Dear readers,
With the Ranji finals starting tomorrow I can't help but think of two relatively unknown names who lead Uttar Pradesh into the finals. Both Shivakant Shukla and Parvinder Singh played the innings of their lives when their team needed it the most. This is what intrigues me about team sport - different people standing up and bailing the team out at different difficult times. But the sad part is that everyone's contribution is not acknowledged in a similar manner. This is the story of people who are always the best men.
Last year, Parvinder Awana from Delhi took a hat-trick against Maharashtra when we were desperate for a wicket. He got a lot of crucial wickets at times when we needed them the most. But his overall season tally didn't match up with the best in the country, nor was it good enough to get him into the North Zone squad for the Duleep Trophy. His hat-trick wasn't the only time he made a crucial contribution, the wickets against Tamil Nadu in a must win game for Delhi, crucial second-innings wickets against Baroda in semi-finals were as important to Delhi's success as Gautam Gambhir's, Rajat Bhatia's or my centuries were.
Full postWin the toss, bag the match
Dear readers,
Aakash Chopra
25-Feb-2013
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Dear readers,
Generally one must beat the opposition to qualify for the next round; a draw is never good enough. But in all probability a draw will do the job in this year's Ranji Trophy semi-finals. Both matches, though at neutral and Test venues, are being played on flat batting surfaces where the toss almost decided the outcome of the game. These are perfect win-the-toss-and-bat-first conditions. And to make matters worse for the team losing the toss, the match is only a four-day game and a first-innings lead is adequate to decide the match.
When you know that you don't have to bowl the opposition out twice to ensure a place in the final, the approach while batting changes, especially when batting first. One wouldn't want to force the issue as time is never going to be a concern. One must bat on and on for as long as they possibly can and try to bat the opposition out of the game.
Full postMost Read
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