College for Social Networking!

A boy with neatly combed hair very well oiled, half sleeve “printed shirt” tucked in a pant with a belt comfortably making at least three rounds around a 24 inch waist, just to make sure the pant doesn’t fall off :), slipped his legs into a pair of Bata slippers, a bag on the back, vehemently protesting against carrying the “dabbi”, with some cash in his pocket, hopped on to his HERO cycle, started his journey to the whole new world of boys in jeans, boys in jeans riding Yamaha/shogun bikes, boys in jeans riding Yamaha/shogun bikes with girls hugging them tightly sitting in the back seat, (so tightly that it went on to become an inspiration for the Fevicol advertisement ;)) girls and boys sitting in a dry gutter chatting away... As he reached closer and closer to the destination, the college culture which he had only heard and imagined before that time, slowly started opening itself up in front of him. Groups of students few with books, few with cigarettes, few with helmets (yeah wearing a helmet was fashionable, then!!!) were spread on either side of the road leading to the college entrance.  Although he was not a little town boy, he hardly had any “social” life outside his cricket and studies and hence all these students seemed to be from a different planet altogether! The dry gutters at the road junctions around the college were packed to the brim….. with.. with students, both genders, clasping each other so tightly that there was always room for more from the gang to seat his/her bum in that coveted place, the alma mater of total time pass!! Amazed at the space management of these seniors, the boy started looking around for some familiar faces. It was easy to identify who were the first timers for the college, Girls with their mom, dad or brother along with them, small groups of boys in a huddle at a distant corner away from the seniors, he could identify them all!!!

But where is his group? Frantically he was looking around for familiar faces so that he could hide from the seniors of the college, when familiar voices “Lo avi baaro illi”… was heard. Much to his relief, the boy hurriedly ran to the comfort of his group, in which he had friends/acquaintances for the past few years!!! Few were his classmates from his school, few from his same school, but different sections, and few were friends of his friends!! All in that huddle, giggling, bubbling with enthusiasm about the so called very good college that they had secured a seat in.  Yes, human mind feels far more comfortable in known territory, and about certainties in life!!

I had always been the happy Joe in the sense that I used to go with the flow. All my friends had chosen Sanskrit as the first language and English as the second language. I dint have any special love towards Hindi and hence I went with what my friends had chosen. When I was wondering how the students would be divided into two different classes, one simple logic put my friends away from me, not far, they were only put in an adjacent class. The simple logic was an alphabetical order! Students whose first name started with letters between A-K would be one class, from K – P would be in another class!! S – Z in another class!! Prashanth, Prabhu, Pramod, Shashi kiran were thus pushed to other classes! Few guys and girls, whom I had perceived as “nerds” during my Excellence Class anecdotes in 10^th standard, were my class mates at 1^st PU B Section in M E S College of Arts Science and Commerce!!! The first steps in an environment where I would cherish two wonderful years of life had begun!!

The big hoopla surrounding the perceived “College” environment was evident from the way my friends were dressed. Forget branded clothes, even a jeans pant was considered a novelty by me and believed it was the same even for all of my friends. But no, not for all, few of them wore the best of the brands, shoes and even had got themselves a bike to travel to college! And yes, there were always these little vehicles fitted with a 60 cc engine; few with gears, few without, which fuelled the urge of these kids to showcase their newly learnt macho driving skills!!! And of course there were these typical Bollywood hero types, who could flirt with girls all day long, zip around the college in shogun/Yamaha bikes and yet get a first rank in the class, with attendance shortage in every subject. Looking at all these various species of homo sapiens, I felt a bit inferior, but to my relief there were others too who peddled their way to college, wore a non-catalogued dress and were almost bare foot except for the Bata slippers that adorned their feet! Made me realize why we wore uniforms to school!!!

For a college that was conventionally traditional, the percentage of students of both the genders that were together was surprisingly high! There were only two places in the whole college where the boys and girls could not move around together!! The first place is quite obvious… and the second place was surprisingly the staircase!! For some strange reason two separate stairs were made for boys and girls, as if it caused inconvenience to the students who used them. I guess the college authorities felt that soon after the prayer, (one of the many hilarious events right at the beginning of the day) the students would be in a tearing hurry to attend the classes, hence two separate stairs would offer convenience go to the respective classes in the above floors. How witty!! The fatheads forgot that single stairs would have made the boys find convenience in inconvenience and yet reach the classes along with the respective female classmates without even complaining! The fairer gender in the anxiety of missing the classes would eventually make it to the class, despite the hardships (supposedly!!)  However, why gender bias was made only in using the stairs is something which I fail to comprehend even to date!! Coming back to the prayer, the Sanskrit lecturer, Ramakrishna, (The Cacofonix of our college!!!) standing inches away from the mike, would recite the prayer (I personally felt in his vociferous best, he dint need a mike, however, I guess the prayer was supposed to signal the entire Malleshwaram locality that the college had started!) and in the excitement of performing this mundane activity, would sprinkle his sputum in all generosity on its head. As he hit the high notes, the sprinkle would get extended to the potted plants in front of the stage, a few feet away from the first person standing in the row for the prayer!! I had always stood almost at the end of the line for the prayer, hence never got a chance to see or talk to the person who could have at least once received the “abhishekham”, albeit only a couple of drops!!  No prizes for guessing why the Sanskrit lecturer was the chosen one for performing this activity; be it Prayer or Scolding, Sanskrit was his language of preference!!! ;) The seniors from the college generally gave the prayer a skip and would run to the busiest and most happening place on the campus, its Social Networking Site!!! (in an non internet environment, the verbatim would translate to CANTEEN!!)

This site in MES College was strangely tucked in one corner of its campus, and was cramped for space throughout the day I must say! Jam packed during lunch hours!! More the rush more the fun!! Yes the college canteen had stood witness to many budding love stories, romantic encounters, wannabe lover boys campaigning with the best of their wits, trying to woo that one gorgeous looking girl from the class!, groups of boys admonished as reserved snobs generally having a hearty laughter at a naughty joke in an “All Boys” group, students completing the never completed lab records, groups of boys and girls yapping happily sipping coffee/tea. Amidst all this, the CANTEEN owner Sudarshan, would churn out not exactly lip-smacking delicacies, but something that would satiate our appetite!! After all canteen is not the place meant only for eating food!!

Another popular social networking site was the parking lot in front of the college main entrance. Ideally two girls would be sitting on a kinetic Honda, and adjacent to that, in another Kinetic Honda or a Yamaha bike a guy would be seated, frantically making attempts at wooing at least one of them!! A guy standing in the middle of these two vehicles, would either be a common friend or be waiting for the guy on the bike to get started as he was supposed to drop him! Also, there would be guys under the pretext of copying notes, would take an eternity to take their vehicles out of parking lot, so that they could speak to their probable love interests for a couple of minutes more. The Valentino Rossis of the college and other colleges would definitely find the platform to showcase their talent of riding their bikes on single wheel in front of same parking lot!! 

As I look back, many from my generation and the previous who studied in MES College, would agree that they would have spent the best part of lives in that college! Even now, while I drive past this college, my car slows down, and as l happily look back at the stone building, Bryan Adams belts out “Those were the best days of life….” in my car stereo!!  

A[V]I

Year of exams!

The title aptly suits any engineering graduate who because of the mercy of our then semester scheme, sailed smoothly until the end of second year, with a healthy list of backlogs to clear in the final two years of engineering! Cometh the 3^rd year, the race against time begins, (mind you this race against time is only for those who wish to pass out of engineering with only their class mates as engineers! For others who have no such intentions, and take a leisurely path, can wait until their nephew or niece became their classmates!) The frequency of attending the exams would be more than the number of classes attended, sometimes writing back to back exams, creating so much confusion, that you even forget to take the correct chits to the exam hall :), aah the miseries of supplementary exams and the comedy of errors!! Unfortunately or fortunately, I was not a part of all this drama during my engineering days! I have heard from few of my pals, that supplementary exam hall is itself quite eventful even during the exam!!

So what according to me is my year of exams? The eventful year happened during one full year of my 10^th standard, where the only “event” was exams! You say I must be kidding, but I swear by almighty that most of the students during that era went through this onslaught of exams during their 10^th standard in my school, SPHS!!!

Of course all this was done in the good intention of the students, so that they successfully complete the “considered” most important stage of life, and come out with flying colors. Moreover, what do middle class parents expect from their children? They would be more than happy if their son or daughter got a 90 percent in the 10^th exam, over the moon if they got a rank :), join Science (PCMB) stream in a reputed college, and become an engineer, any engineer!! Their mission accomplished only after that nayi patti(ID tag worn by all types of engineers nowadays) adorns the neck of their son or daughter! 

They would not be so pleased if the son or daughter did well in sports or cultural activities for the school team. Not that they would not be pleased, but that success would not be exchanged for not so good marks in the 10^th exams! Can’t blame them as well! Poor souls would want their kids to secure their future and then try something nasty (yeah! Choosing sports as a career was indeed nasty, according to my DAD!), rather trying something nasty, and spoiling their career as well! Typical middle class mentality!

Warning bells started ringing right after the results of the 9^th exam were announced! Students, who scored more than 80% in the final exams, were branded “excellent achievers” and were eligible for some sort of special coaching right from beginning of the academic year for the 10^th standard! And GodFather (both God and my father) who dint want me to anything “nasty” showered all their blessings on me, the blessing combo deadlier than the Delhi Daredevils opening pair, ensured that I got 80% in the 9^th standard final exam! The result, Karnataka ranji team would go on to miss a left arm super-fast bowler! :) (just kidding guys!, I was nowhere as talented as at least few of school mates even, forget the state level under 16 champs, but what’s wrong in dreaming!). For a person who used to run to school at 11am to play cricket, this was an unwelcome change, for we had sit in the excellent achievers class, right from 1030 up to start of the actual classes, which started at 12 in the noon. I had barely made the cut to this supposed elite group, and would have been extremely happy to swap the place with someone who wanted to attend these classes. Nothing to demean the capabilities of the other guys who weren’t in these classes, for it was perfectly possible that anyone outside this supposed elite group could get a rank in 10^th standard! 

For the kind of syllabus that we had, Science and Maths were pretty easy for most of the students in this excellent achievers class, whereas History, Geography and Civics, was the toughest nut to crack for few of them, well… actually one person, that was ME! Not that I was not good at remembering facts, but facts coupled with numbers was something that my mind failed to comprehend! In which year was the Battle of Plassey fought? The moment I read this question, the random number generator used to start working in my head, and invariably arrive at a year that was not even remotely connected to the era in which it was fought! And since there was no logical way of arriving at the exact era, I was pathetic at these subjects in school! Before you readers conclude, let me describe what the term “pathetic” meant to a student who was in that excellent achievers class. In a total of 100 marks for Social Studies, 65 marks were for History and Civics put together, and 35 marks were for Geography. So my best effort in social studies during that entire academic year for History and Civics, was 58.5 out of 65. Now, for scoring these “many” marks I was grinning ear to ear, however the history teacher, was upset and chided me in that excellent achievers class, that I had scored below 60. Why this sort of bench mark? Because everybody in that excellent achievers class had gobbled up the entire text book of history, civics and geography, and could spit out any paragraph from any corner of the text book! For eg make any one person from the excellent achievers class stand up, and ask, “Page 153, paragraph 2, Start!” and lo to my surprise, the person would start.. “The reforms done during the reign of Akbar…” :) OK OK, I am exaggerating but almost all the students in that class were able to do something similar in response to a correctly worded question, except me! I was the Ishaan Nandkishore Avasthi of that excellent achievers class! The result, half the academic year, I used to study only History, Civics and Geography!! And still had the confusion as to who ascended the throne in the Mughal dynasty after Jahangir!

Outside this cauldron, the regular students were also not out of the woods! As a matter of fact, the excellent class students also had to undergo this mundane activity. Two tests in each subject were conducted every week, one on a Wednesday and one on a Saturday! 4 tests were conducted in the entire year, 2 before the mid term exams, and 2 after the mid term exams! For total marks of 25 in each subject, the marks awarded were ridiculous and would go to show in great depth as to what was the kind of important given to “studies”. Say for example for a science paper of 25 marks, 8 marks were allotted for Physics, 8 marks for Chemistry and 7 for Biology! Forget the students, the details up to which the teachers had to study the text books; to get the questions out of every nook and corner of the text book, would automatically make the teacher a potential rank holder in her/his own right!!! A 3 mark question was worth its weight in gold!! and the answers to these questions required an answer written down in six points! It seemed ridiculous to me in the beginning when I used to get, 6 and a half or very rarely even 7 and half, as my test scores in physics, or say maths! Mind you, I never managed to go beyond 5 in history or geography! So the final score for the test would be a ludicrous decimal value, and occasionally which happened very very rarely, I used to miss the 10^th rank amongst all the 4 sections by say about half a mark!!! Aaah the agony and despair of having missed the mark by a frugal margin!! The sensitive fairer gender would cry their hearts out for that half mark that eluded them the glory! Fortunately, more often than not I stayed clear out of this uncertain zone because I always used to fall short by 10 or 15 marks which was a matter of huge concern!,  No not for me, but for my class teacher, as I was an attendee of the “excellent achiever class”!! 

Amidst all this decimals and fractions of margins, I had the bigger margins of defeats as well!! The  mid term and two preparatory exams, for which the marks were relatively less ridiculous, gave ample opportunities for me miss the mark by bigger margins!! By the time we guys finished the second preparatory exams, all the students were sort of sick and tired of writing the exams, which in a way was good!, because nobody, I guess had the “examination fear”! Hence, by the end of that academic year, all the students would have answered at least 50 odd question papers in each subject, which by a margin, would make an entry to any record books!

After the final 10^th public exam, I came to know that after the two preparatory exams, there was a special exam conducted before this final exam for the probable students who were more likely to get a rank in the public exam! So since I was not called to write that special exam, I was convinced that they had finally given up on me!

For all the effort that the teachers and all the students put in the 10^th exam in our school, we could achieve a 100% first class, and I guess our school got some 6 to 8 ranks in the 10^th board exams, including the 1^st rank for the entire state!  For the 6 months of study that I did exclusively for History, Geography and Civics I scored 79 out of 100 which would be I guess my numero uno performance in that subject! However, for my parents’ relief, my performance was good enough for me to share the benches with a good number of rank holders in the board level exams for the state! My battle with my tormentor subject, Social studies, had ended in a truce, however from being Ishaan Nandkishore Avasthi of the excellent achievers class in 10^th , I was promoted to being the Ishaan Nandkishore Avasthi of the entire class in PU!

A[V]I

Swan Song

After our triumphant entry to the cricketing fraternity in PESIT, (read post “Lords of Pesit”) we were “The team” to beat in subsequent odd semesters. Although we weren’t eliminated in the first round, it was made sure that we never reached beyond the 3^rd round, by pitting us against potential finalists! Either of us getting eliminated would pave way for the third team to win the coveted title. Although the team in the subsequent semesters (3^rd and 5^th) was stronger than its previous first semester avatar, I guess the stars also played their role in keeping us grounded. So it was up to one final show down in the 7^th Semester, where we had the last chance to prove that this E&C team didn’t win in its 1^st appearance just by chance. Indeed our team was the most experienced team in the college at that time, as would have other teams in that semester. Also, having recognized the talents and strengths of team over a period of 4 years, the 7^th semester teams were by and large pretty strong. I personally felt that the 7^th Semester computer science team was of equal match to ours, which boasted of two nippy bowlers who played for the college cricket team. Our team was no push overs either. Few cricketers who were not a part of the 1^st semester triumphs were a part of this strong 7^th Sem E&C team, and each one of them was a dynamite ready to explode. Kiran Kumar Gururaja (KKG), was my clone to the hilt. However, he was a far better pinch hitter and bowled much faster than me. Two left handers in any team, at the college level is more of a boon, because it is such a rare breed, Yeah!! Also, two left arm bowlers, one fast and the other super-fast ( No I don’t take the credit of being the fastest in PESIT, then!!) hardly gave any respite to the batsmen.  Add to that one pretty quick bowler in Sridhar Kumar, and one giant bowler in Vinay K (The Curtly Ambrose, of our team), the pace attack was very potent. 

I don’t want to sound like a champ, but I was the Jayasuriya of that team! only two differences, he bowled spin and was bald. For the kind of I care a damn kind of batting that I was gifted with, I usually used to tonk the bowling around from the outset, which would generally cause irrevocable damage to the opponents, either batting first or second. However, in the lineup consisting of see the ball hit the ball batsmen, there was one Mr Cricket who valued method batting. It was Sandeep Das, who was almost the Rahul Dravid of our team; never flashy always dependable. Barring him, I don’t recollect anyone who could play out a maiden over unflustered in a 12 over a side, match!! 

In one match in one of the previous semesters, I was not able to play a game, which gave the opportunity for my clone, KKG to open the innings!! And boy, dint he perform well!! Our team was chasing a score, and he took the opponent bowling to the cleaners and won the match for us!! So our team had discovered another batsman who was left handed, and was flamboyant!! 

Hence in the 7^th Semester, it was decided that I would bat number 4, sandwiching our Mr Dependable, between two southpaws. Positioning me at number 4 worked out perfectly, as in one of the league matches, leading to the finals, we were chasing a decently sizeable score of around 80 in a 12 over match, and our ballistic(surface-to-air) missile bomber (KKG never believed in hitting ball along the ground, it was always air bound, hence the name!!!. The only difference between his batting and mine was that I had a method to my madness, he had none!!) in the 1^st over of our innings, lost his off stump, trying to send the ball into the orbit. Enter Mr. Dependable, and the scoreboard started ticking squeamishly. Although the run rate was not that pathetic, at the competence level of college, you are never sure until you have actually won the match, and you never know, you may lose couple of wickets, and the winning team could be your opponents. One more wicket fell, and enter the Southpaw Rockstar!!! For some strange reason, barring professional cricket, as soon as a left hander comes into bat, all the right hand bowlers go round the wicket, which is exactly what I want. I could easily flick the ball to midwicket fence if it was full, or pull the ball over square leg if it’s short!! A few monster hits to the fence from my bat, and the smile started to return to the faces of my team members. Every cricket match has its share of twists and turns, and it so happened that in one twist, turn and running back for the second run, our Mr Dependable was found short of his crease and was out in the only possible manner that he could, run out!! I was the culprit on that occasion, calling him for an impossible second run! Our captain, Vinay K came and went trying to slog his way out of trouble, and our little pocket dynamite Pramod B, was connecting thin air every time he tried to smash the ball out of the ground. Time for the senior batsman, to calm his nerves, and take stock of the situation. I just ensured that he rotated the strike and allowed myself to get much strike as possible. And since, the bowlers bowled to my strengths, I was sending the ball easily to the boundary on the leg side, and with each hit their sapping spirits, refused to motivate them to bowl accurately and eventually we won that match, with more than an over to spare!!! In one match, I had changed roles from being a Jayasuriya to a Michael Bevan!! 

As destiny would have it, without much hiccups we made it to the finals!!! And our opponents, our E&C juniors from the 5^th Semester!! I was happy that the E&C clan was blessed with cricketing talent, and we could pass on the baton after that swan song match! And what a build up to that final it was!! There was a sizeable crowd that had gathered to watch the finals, and surprisingly for the first time in 4 years, the girls from our class, had come to cheer up the team!! Why did all the book worm sort of snobs turn up to witness this match? I had no idea! Was it that they loved cricket or was it that they suddenly got patriotic about their class being in the final?  Or was it that viva for the first part of the final year project had just got over, and they wanted to relax for the evening? The 5^th sem girls were in their vociferous best, and that motivated our opponents further, the front foot defense a bit more stylish, the follow through after hitting a boundary, a bit more exaggerated and the running between the wickets a bit more nimble. Seriously, girls can do so much good to cricket just by sitting and watching it!!! 

Our opponents batted first, and they did bat well. However, wickets fell regularly and the decibels in the crowd that supported the 5^th sem, began to attenuate. The kind of support that we got from the crowd, was more “English like”, which was perfectly understandable. The 5^th Sem guys were there in the finals for the first time and it was only fair that the first timers were supported to the hilt. 

So another chase of 80 odd runs in 12 overs, was on the cards, and considering the depth in our batting, we were confident that the chase would not be nerve jangling. Our bomber did start off well, and gave a decent opening stand. Once he departed, rather surprisingly, I was sent in to bat at number 3!! Our captain did not want the rhythm to break or he just wanted to take a chance, I had no clue about it. We had never changed the batting order until that time, then why change it then? I had nothing against the batting prowess of our Mr Dependable, as he was more than capable of guiding us home. If it was my day, we would be coasting home, bagging the title for the second time, and would be a befitting farewell!! Had it backfired? I don’t know what our captain’s backup plan was, and moreover at the age of 19, cricket is all played out of instinct, rather than careful planning. So amidst all the animated discussion, I took the bat and strolled to the crease. The first ball that I faced was on middle and leg, and boom!!! The ball had got the height, but not the distance, I could see the deep mid-wicket fielder lining himself up to take an improbable catch!! One huge leap by the fielder at the boundary, and the ball just eluded his outstretched hands, SIX!!! The oohs aahs from the crowd indicated that they were unhappy that I was not out!! Smiling at the partner at the non-striker end, I winked at him saying I had hit it well, fully aware that it would cross the ropes, Liar!! I could hear the captain shouting from the boundary ropes, which meant that he dint have a backup plan and wanted me to stay at the crease till the end.  From that moment on, I knew that match was ours to win, as I was hitting the ball pretty well. As the target started to appear more and more achievable, our camp started to get more and more relaxed, and the opponents started to get more and more vociferous in their appeals!

The college seniors had the final laugh and in a way showed who the BOSS was, and I did live up to the expectations of our captain, and did hit the winning run!! I punched the air, and did all the antics that professional cricketer would do! The non-striker, Santosh came and hugged me and soon the entire team was in the bear hug huddle!! Some girls in the class who never spoke to me during all the 4 years of engineering, came and congratulated me, more out of a formality, I am sure!! (not that I was craving for all the attention, but being popular at least for a day, makes you feel good about life!!)

So there it was, the “96GSEE” batch (For all the guys wondering what this cryptic number is, that was what all the 1996 E&C batch students had at the beginning of their roll number) ended their cricketing journey in PESIT with a bang proving that the first triumph was not a fluke!! The swan song was a indeed a sweet memory!!

Note : I have written so much about me and myself in this post, that it sounds too cocky. This disclaimer is worth a mention at the end at least; otherwise it would be unfair to huge cricketing talent that I played against/with throughout my 4 years in PESIT. Two of the fastest bowlers whom I faced, were not from E&C team. One was Rohith from the CS branch (you blink and you miss the ball, kind of pace) and the other one Mahesh from Mechanical branch (lightning speed left hand bowler, who could spin the ball at that pace!!). The same two were the most difficult batsmen I have bowled against. The E&C cricket team was a bunch of extremely talented cricketers and I was only lucky to have played alongside them. Since I was a left handed bat and left arm bowler, I got more opportunities to play up the order and bowl more often, both of which are extremely essential to be successful in a 12 over game.

IPL, a farce?

So the four metros entered the final league of this IPL, with KKR romping into the finals, and CSK managed to tame Mumbai Indians and reach the supposed semifinal. In the first match, main contributors with the bat were Yusuf pathan and Laxmi Ratan Shukla, who smashed Varun Aaron and company in the dying overs of the first innings.  Agreed, the 1^st choice eleven for the Delhi Daredevils was shocking, considering the slow dusty Pune pitch. But, fast bowlers bowling up to the bat, almost in the swining arc of Yusuf Pathan begged to slaughtered; deservedly so. 

Fast forward to the end overs of the Delhi innings, Venugopal Rao and Pawan Negi neither withstood the barrage of short stuff from Jacques Kallis, nor had the skill to negotiate Sunil Narine. Of course, Delhi missed a trick, in not sending Ross Taylor earlier, which was the point of debate right from the commentary box in the stadium to the local bar in Delhi. So the result was there to see; KKR will be making their maiden appearance in the final of the IPL. Despite a berth in the final at stake, did Delhi want to win this match with two local lads fighting out the might of the international cricketers?  Had they sent Ross Taylor earlier, would it have changed the fortunes? Well I am not sure about that. But I am sure of one thing; in the second qualifier, Ross Taylor would never bat at a number as low as 7.

I would salute the team management of Delhi Daredevils, if they really felt that the onus of winning in a pressure situation was squarely on Rao and Negi. They failed and failed badly, but at least that is how it is supposed to be, in the sense that substantial contributions from local lads who have never played international cricket, should architect the victories in IPL. Is it not for what IPL is supposed to be organized in the first place??

The second match between Mumbai Indians and CSK, went down as expected, and CSK managed to reach the semifinals. Had it been in the interest of “exposure” to local talent, Mumbai Indians would have dropped SRT, Harbhajan, Dwayne Smith and Malinga, and enter the eliminator match and so would CSK, dropping Dhoni, Hussey, Bravo and Albie Morkel. But now that the result of that match is known, you would also know who the architect of CSK victory was?, It is was Dhoni, Bravo and to some extent Hussey!! What would have happened if CSK had dropped at least two of them, and played probably, Yo Mahesh and Abhinav Mukund? Nobody would have even dared to propose the playing 11 without Dhoni and Bravo. Why? because winning matters the most!!, be it for your franchisee, or your local gully cricket. But wait, winning is at what cost? At the face of it BCCI claims that such tournaments help local talent learn a lot, but on the other end in most of these matches these “supposed local talent” are warming the benches, standing up only the applaud the 100+ mts sixes hit by Gayle, or running to the crease only with a lemonade not a bat in hand.

When the first edition of the IPL made its mark in 2008, it was SUPPOSED to be a local tournament, with opportunities for the local players, to get international exposure, in terms of playing against or with big names of the games, brushing shoulders with the super stars who have made their mark on the world stage. However, the intent was brushed under the carpet of glitz and glamour, the cheer leaders and the start studded teams. Although the cap for number of foreign players per team was put to 4, other important positions in each of franchisee teams were occupied by the members of the Indian ODI team!!! So the remaining slots would be keenly contested by the local lads, which would be a competition in itself. So where is the exposure for the local talent? Would you call bowling to such cricketing divas in the nets as international exposure, huh??

I can clearly remember the batting line up of Deccan Chargers team during that edition of IPL. Adam Gilchrist, VVS Laxman, Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Simonds, Rohit Sharma, Shahid Afridi… and it would have been a miracle that someone like a Venugopal Rao, got a chance to bat within those 20 overs. It was different matter, altogether, that the miracle happened quite often, and he did get his chances albeit in the end overs. But the actual purpose of the tournament was to encourage local talent and give them international exposure. The only exposure these players got was in terms of relatively better money, and the after match “IPL Nights” parties, which they never even had a blinking idea about its glamour and girls!!

The members of the Indian cricket team should stay away from this tournament; Period. However, the kind of money that is involved in IPL especially for the players of international repute is extremely lucrative and I don’t see even a single player in the present ODI team, who has refused to play IPL, just to concentrate on International cricket? Coming to think of it, these cricketers get enough exposure in terms of playing 20-20 cricket and ODI, if at all they need any exposure it would at the test level on foreign soil, not on the featherbeds or the dust bowls here. Also, a few players who are in the swan song years of making an attempt to break into the Indian cricket team, need to be politely discouraged from participating in such tournaments.  The two that come to mind immediately are Ajit Agarkar and Lakshmi Ratan Shukla. The last I saw of Laxmi Ratan shukla from KKR, was in the Asian test championship, wherein he was a pretty nippy fast bowler, and a handy bat. This was way back in 1998-99, and I am sure even he does not fancy his chances of making a comeback to the Indian team. Well after a gap of so many years, it would not be a comeback, actually. Then why is that he is playing for KKR? Is he a future prospect for that ever elusive all-rounder that India is looking for? I don’t think so. 

IPL should not be a forum for the above type of players who have past their prime, to showcase their talent. I am not advocating that they should retire from cricket. But if it is in the vested interest of BCCI to filter out local talent from these tournaments, then adequate chances should be given to them. Rajasthan Royals showed it to the world in the first edition that with a bunch of rookies, under an able leader could deliver stellar performances, and went on to win the first edition. Ravindra Jadeja and Naman Ojha were stars in that team. Although Ravindra Jadeja has somewhat found his foot hold now, Naman Ojha has lost it I guess, amidst the stars of Delhi Daredevils!!

If International exposure is the catch phrase, the cap for the number of foreign players in each team, should be reduced to 2; one batsman and one bowler. Agreed, that this would affect the exposure quotient; but at least would ensure that the local players would get some hit in the middle. The IPL should be the litmus test for recruiting the players at least for T20 Indian team. Barring Ajinkya Rahane and probably Shikhar Dhawan, I don’t see anyone else making the cut. 

Take the case of Shadab Jakati, who has been a regular at the CSK camp, since 2008, but his name has never featured in any of the probable list of players for the Indian T20 team. If this continues, then probably the next level cricket which the Ranji players aspire to play, would be the IPL, and playing for India would be a dream buried under all the money, glitz and glamour of IPL.  I fear in future eventually, there would be a list of local players who would retire from IPL, getting the supposed international exposure in all the wrong intended sense. I see only one exception to this norm, and probably the only local supposed talent who would make it to the Indian ODI or T20 team, and bat at position 1, 2 or worst 3, would be Aniruddha Srikanth!!! 

A[V]I