CRICKET(yatendra singh) Sonnet Cricketing Club:

The club’s cricket ground had beautiful lush green outfields with huge trees at the boundaries, 2 net practice pitches at the left corner of the ground and one main pitch at the center. Also there was a visitor’s stand near the sight screen. As it was a very expensive and high profile club, mostly the rich kids of rich people played at the club, and their luxury SUV’ could be easily sighted at the parking ground. This was the most famous and probably the best among all the other local clubs. As they had the best coaches and physical trainers, and other cricketing material, some of them even made it into the national team.

The cricketing calendar for the month was full and there was a match every third day. Also they were hosting some of the matches at their ground so the club required some extra boundary boys for assistance during the matches and net practice and also for the drinks during the matches. As cricket fever is always high across the country it wasn’t a great deal to get some boys, any number of young cricketers from schools. Just a week before the tournament an NGO met Mr. Jaitley (president of the cricket club) and told him about their summer project to help poor kids, who study in municipality schools. The people from the NGO suggested employing these kids as boundary boys and net practice assistance so that they could learn and earn during these summer vacations. Since the club itself was looking for such boys for the upcoming tournament, Mr. Jaitley agreed without hesitating for a moment. Next day the club received a document from the NGO’s office, with details about those twelve kids who were just about to join the club. After some more exchange of details the club approved all of them and asked the NGO to send the boys next morning in the regular cricket uniforms.

Actually those boys were from different municipal schools but they played together as a team in many tournaments in their locality. Most of them were enthusiastic about the fact that they would be watching and practicing with some professional cricketers, while some of them were afraid as they had never been to such a place. But as soon as they heard that some of the cricketers from the national team were coming as guests to visit the final match the fear was gone.

Next morning all of them appeared at the cricket ground in their cricketing t-shirts and white pants. These kids were so excited they were there an hour before, so they had some time to explore the pitch and the ground. They were afraid to go to the pitch but their curiosity overcome the fear and everyone was mesmerized, it was totally unlike anything they had ever seen before. The main pitch was well rolled and had some dry grass on it, while the pitches on which they played were random and had enormous grass even at the middle. Moreover they discovered a security guard at the club so they decided to wait at the stands till their instructor came. After waiting for almost an hour, their mentor appeared and instructed them for a warm up. The boys quickly followed the instruction and started their warm up session, but after 45 minutes the warm up session was over and still there were no signs of the senior players, whom they were to join at the nets. So the batsmen from these youngsters took it as an opportunity as they had some time for their batting practice. It was amazing for them as they never had such a practice session. Later when the seniors came, they assisted them during practice session in nets, where Vicky, a top order batsman of the club, was bowled thrice by one of them. It was believed that he was the best opening batsman in the entire club so it was quite shocking for all of them. Coach, Mr. Mandeep Singh, called that young kid and asked a few things from him, whether he had taken coaching from anyone or played at some club, to which he shook his head no. This was quite astonishing for Mr. Singh, because he had a socially biased mentality that only rich kids were talented and was not able to accept the fact that this little fellow was enormously talented and an emerging bowler. Later, when he was asked to bowl a few over, he specked amazing swing bowling with quite a good speed, which ultimately attached him to this kid and after the practice session was done he called this young kid to his office. The boy was first a bit hesitant, as he was afraid, wondering why they called only him? Later he gathered his courage and entered the coach’s room. Mr. Singh asked, “so are you sure you are from some MCD school?“

“No doubt sir.”

“What’s your name?“

“Arsh.”

“OKAY. JUST BE REGULAR HERE. OKAY YOU MAY LEAVE NOW”.

The short conversation was a bit weird for the young fast bowler but he was least bothered about it as he was only fantasizing about his bowling on the main pitch. His fantasies came true on only the first day, as they had a practice match on the ground. Two teams were formed mixing players from the guest kids and the seniors, where all the kids played with the same energy as the seniors and their body language looked more confident than their seniors. ARSH took three wickets and, of his friend, hit some exiting shots with one shot making the ball disappear out of the ground before he got out. Later when the practice match was over, the players looked exhausted, except for the kids, who looked as fresh as if they could play one more match. This energy was nothing but their enthusiasm about the game cricket.

The first day was full of fun for all of them, as they played at a sophisticated place for the first time in their lives and also learned some new things from their seniors. The first thing they learned was discipline and team spirit. When they were about to leave they found their NGO officers at the pavilion who were there to gift them their new cricket kits and a couple of new bats. The boys could barely believe it as everything that happened in the past few hours was totally unexpected and a very new kind of experience to them. First they got the opportunity to play at such a ground with some famous local cricketers, and later they were highly appraised and motivated and now they were getting their own cricketing material. They took the kits and placed it in their locker and thanked everyone who was present at the pavilion. This was the happiest moment of their lives as they could not even think of buying this expensive material on their own. After leaving the club they went to a nearby temple to thank almighty for being so kind to them. After such an amazing day, some of them found it difficult to sleep as they had the same schedule next day.

Next morning when they went to the club, it seemed more familiar to them; they felt like they owned the place and had been coming there for years. Again the seniors never appeared on the scheduled time, so again these kids got an opportunity to bat at the nets. Later when the seniors came in, a short warm up session was held and as the kids were superbly talented they decided to cancel the net practice session and straightaway went for a practice match. The next day the same procedure was followed and now this was their daily routine, to have practice matches with these kids. Also some of the kids became very friendly with them, so now the kids were not afraid to talk to them and also class barriers were now gone.

The tournament was about to start so they all were practicing hard and the boys also were emphasizing on their physical fitness, probably following their seniors suggestions. As the kids also had been participating in several tournaments in their locality, so they took these sessions seriously. All of them had their own reasons to play cricket. Some played for fun, some had a passion, some played thinking they would be cricketers some day, but no doubt every one of them equally loved playing cricket as they had very good team spirit and superb energy level.

Next week the tournament started: first a few matches were at their home ground. Their seniors played against the club 11 stars, which they defeated with ease. The boys were happy to be a part of the match even though they were the boundary boys, but they didn’t care much as they were more excited about watching professional cricket for the first time live. After a few more matches their club’s team came out a strong contender for the championship, but at the finals they lost even after putting a massive score on the board. They faced a 5 wicket defeat to the hands of their rival club, which means they failed to defend their score. At the end of the match the players looked disappointed as they lost even after performing well. Just because they lacked a sharp bowling line-up they lost, but this was a big day for those kids as they managed to pose with their favorite Indian cricketers, who were there as chief guests. The seniors had a tough time with their coach as he wasn’t happy with their bowling performance, but the kids were delighted and maybe they weren’t able to sleep that night.

A week long break was scheduled earlier but the disappointed coach rescheduled it and asked the players to be at the club exactly after two days, as there was another tournament coming up and in any case they had to win this one for the sake of their reputation among the professional cricketing clubs around the capital. When practice session started at the scheduled time, Mr. Singh came out as a very strict coach and whoever he found coming late to the ground was punished and told to make 2 rounds of the cricket ground. This strictness was effective as next day they all were on time. Another week long practice session was held but this one under supervision of their coach, Mr. Singh.

The tournament was about to start but they were still not confident about their bowling line up. Also the bench strength wasn’t high because most of the good bowlers got selected for their respective state team so they left the club. Also, in the practice matches the bowlers from the playing 11 didn’t show much, not even in the early over when the ball is new and favourable for bowlers to swing it. So this was bothering Mr. Singh. He was thinking how to tackle this problem. He found that his bowlers were not in form. Later at the nets when he saw young Arsh bowling with fierce speed, and also that he was able to get the swing both ways, suddenly there was a smile on Singh's face and he called Arsh once again. “Do you think that you can bowl to any batman?”

He was puzzled but he replied, “all it takes for bowling is just a ball, not the batsman.”

“Look kid, I would like to be straight forward now….“ He continued after a pause, “do you think you will be able to play with these professional cricketers?”.

“Yes I can, but why?“.

“Because I have decided to include you in our 15 member squad for the upcoming tournament.“

“I am willing to play, but how is this possible? I will have to ask my team mates.“

Mr. Singh was amazed with his team spirit. ”Ok son, ask your team mates and then come back to me and fill out a form”.

“Ok sir.” Arsh then quickly rushed to the nets where he told his friends about the offer. They all were very happy for him and allowed him to join the club.

Later Arsh filled out a membership form, and Mr. Singh also promised him match fees.

When he left, a meeting was called upon where all the seniors were present and Mr. Singh told them that he had appointed a young bowler for the upcoming tournament. Now the question was who would be dropped to make a space for him? The captain and the coach discussed it and after almost an hour it was decided to drop Sandy because of his poor performance with the ball. Sandy boiled with rage. “So now people from the trash will be joining our club?” he said before leaving the room. There were mixed views about this, as all of them hailed from rich families, but the captain, Vicky, had strong support for the kid as he had already seen how talented he was. After a few more dialogues the meeting was over. And the very next Arsh joined his new team. Vicky welcomed him and introduced him to the other players. At the starting most of them had the same attitude as Sandy had but later, when they saw him bowling, they changed their minds. But some were still class biased. In a short time Arsh had earned respect for himself, but it wasn’t sure that he would be playing 11. Still he practiced hard with his new classmates. The more he bowled in nets more he earned respect from his captain. Obviously the fellow bowlers were already seeing him as a threat as he was a superb bowler and also more fit than them, so he was a strong competitor for them, and he could replace anyone of them in the playing team. While Arsh only concentrated on his bowling skills, even sometimes in the nets senior bowlers never gave him the feeling of being part of the team. He was always discriminated against on the basis of class. But Vicky was a human with some sophisticated mentality, and he was never bothered about the fact that Arsh belonged to a poor family. So he invited him to his weekend party. Also he was aware of the fact that Arsh might refuse to come because he might not have good party cloths so he presented him a pair of expensive pants and some t-shirts. The young boy was hesitating to accept the gifts, but later, when Vicky insisted and dominatingly told him that he has no option of saying no, he accepted the gifts from his captain.

Later at the party at Vicky’s place the other players were shocked to see Arsh there. One of them called him a party-popper, so he decided to leave the place. But when Vicky came to know about this he got angry with those guys and apologized to Arsh like a true gentleman. But Arsh didn’t stop and left saying, “it’s not their fault, maybe I shouldn’t have come here”.

Next morning at the ground, when he returned the gifts, Vicky refused to take them back and angrily said, “what is this? Man, you are like my younger brother, that’s why I gifted this. But now if you don’t want them you can throw them away“. Arsh was now speechless, so he put the clothes along with his cricket kit in his locker, leaving Vicky impressed with his self-respect. Later at the ground the other guys apologized and hugged him. Everything was normal now like nothing ever happened, and they got back to the ground for the practice match.

The tournament had already started, but they had their first match two days later so they were practicing hard for their game and also had been working on their physical fitness.

Two days later when their first match kicked off, they played with their regular playing 11 with Arsh as their twelfth man.

The captain won the toss and elected to bat first. The openers gave the team a blistering start, the middle order capitalized on it, followed by some superb hitting by them in the last few. This over helped them getting a huge target on the board, which was a proof performance for all those spectators who had heard that this club was batting better than anyone else in the locality. Later at bowling the bowlers had full freedom to bowl their way because they had so many runs on the board already so there was no problem in attacking to defend their total. The other teams openers were too attacking on the ball and they played some exiting strokes down the ground before the club struck for the first time, which ultimately slowed their scoring pace. And later, with a high asking run rate the batsmen made some desperate shots which cost them their wicket. So the club’s team had an upper hand, but when they were very close to winning the team’s front line bowler, Akashdeep, slipped in his follow-through when he just bowled the first ball of his last over, which was the most happening ball of the whole match as the batsman was caught behind the wicket. The match was finished and the winning team’s main bowler was injured. Now this was huge problem for the club as he was the most experienced bowler among them. Later the team’s physician told them that it was a minor injury and that he would recover soon, but suggested one match rest. So Arsh was playing in the next match. Next match they bowled first. The team’s bowler fully utilized the moisture during the first few over, but later the batman came out as merciless hammers on to the ball. Arsh’s performance was satisfactory, even though he took only two wickets, but those were under the circumstances when they were hitting hard and also he finished his bowling quota very economically, didn’t give much runs, so he was praised by his captain when they came back to the pavilion. Later, when they came out in the middle, they easily chased the target though it wasn’t an easy one. The batting was almost flawless in these two matches, but bowling section was sometimes up and sometimes they disappointed.

Now for the third match, Akashdeep was declared fit to play, but the team decided to continue with the winning combination. This was a big blow for him as he was again being rested. In next few matches Arsh bowled superbly, they kept winning, and thus Akashdeep was continuously being rested, which was bothering him very much. The team entered in the finals where Arsh had a four wicket haul and the team won by a huge margin of runs. Everyone except Akashdeep was busy praising him, but for him Arsh was like an enemy, since he had replaced him and become a favorite of his team members. But he controlled his frustration as he knew that Arsh was appointed for this tournament only.

Then it came like a bolt from the blue for him when he heard that the team wanted Arsh permanently in the club. He boiled with rage, but decided to stay silent as Arsh was the most favorite of all at the present moment. With his superb bowling he also killed the differences with his team mates so now everyone accepted him whole heartedly. Later the whole team celebrated hard with everyone jumping with joy.

After a week the team for the next tournament was announced and Arsh was asked to renew his contract with the club, which he later did. Everyone welcomed this decision by the clubs manager, who called Arsh an “emerging talent”. While, on the other hand, Akashdeep knew that if this guy stayed on the team he would never be able to be a part of the playing 11 again, so he silently planned to get rid of him. He made a plan and executed it in the middle of the tournament when, just a few hours before the match, he cunningly offered him an energy drink after their warm up session, in which he had already added some drug material. As a result, Arsh had poor visibility during the match and in the very first over, when he was fielding at the third man, he failed to watch the ball properly and got hit on the head, so he was retired hurt from the match. So the team finished his bowling quota with three part time bowlers, which cost them so many runs. The whole team was worried for him as he was referred to the hospital after the first aid at the ground.

While at the doctor’s, he was asked, “so you got hit by a ball?”

“Yes, but I wasn’t able to see properly, and most of the things appeared blurred.“

The doctor then called another doctor who was an eye specialist. He examined his eyes and also took an eye test which showed that his eyes were perfect. So the physician then suspected that this young fellow has been drugged, and asked him, “did you take anything before the match, like a meal or a drink?”

“Just a usual energy drink”

“Oh, okay.”

“I am very close to it but before taking tests I won’t jump to any conclusion. So we need your blood sample”.

“Okay.”

The blood samples were taken and he was later told the reports would be sent to the club. So he left for the club to know whether his team won or not.

Later the reports stated there were minute traces of “chloral hydrate” in his blood sample, which is a drug that has quick effect on the body and causes sleepiness if diluted, and can even cause worse things if taken in exess. Now it was all clear for Arsh that he had been drugged and that Akashdeep had drugged him.

Later the board of members came out harshly on Arsh, cancelling his contract, as according to them he might have been using drugs from a long time. Those fools didn’t know it was a medical drug which is mostly used in laboratories for experiments. Probably those members were a part of the conspiracy as no one gave him an ear when he screamed that he didn’t know what happened to him and how. Finally he was discarded from the club. He left a SMS to his captain telling him the whole story. The message ended with, “I hope you will believe me. Goodbye”.

Things were changing again in the cricket club. Akashdeep was now included in the playing 11 and also Sandy was called back to the team squad. Vicky tried to contact Arsh, but his cell-phone was switched off, and later when he asked one of his friends about him even he didn’t know anything about where Arsh had disappeared. Vicky then somehow reached his home and when he asked his parents they told him that Arsh wanted to spend rest of his holidays with his maternal uncle in Bombay. So Vicky told them, “okay, when he comes back tell him to call me”.

Life became normal again. The club got with its cricket calendar, and everybody seemed to have forgotten their young fast bowler. Akashdeep was happy. On the other hand, Arsh never had feelings of revenge or any complaint against him, so he quietly moved away from these people, as he wanted to concentrate only on his bowling. Actually, just a week after this incident, he came to know about a club that was taking auditions to select young bowlers, so he went to take auditions and on the basis of his fierce bowling he got selected. He played with the club junior section for about a month and from there he was sent to the government cricket academy, where he got a chance to play with almost all of the Ranji players. In a very short period of time he became the most famous non-Ranji bowler. Also, the IPL was starting soon so the academy head, A former Indian cricket team captain, suggested his name to the IPL council, where Rajasthan Royals team’s selectors picked him up for the squad. A contract was signed which fetched him some $800,000 in Indian currency. He was even more delighted because his captain was none other than Shane Warne, a world famous Australian cricketer, a great captain and an awesome motivator. After a month he joined his team practice camp in Bangalore. Even there too the tale of surprises did not end when he saw Vicky, who was batting in the nets. He couldn’t stop himself running to him, and came shouting, “hey Vicky, bhaiya (bro)” and hugged him. It was an amazing feeling for these two. After this pleasing meet they both went working hard in the nets for the upcoming tournament. Later, under the experienced Shane Warne, his bowling acquired a class of bowlers and at IPL, whenever he was given an opportunity, he always made his captain proud. Now he was well settled as a cricketer.

On the other side of the world, when people saw him on TV, there were multiple emotions from the people who knew ARSH. Some were happy for him, some were proud, some were jealous, some astonished, while Akashdeep’s face was blank when he turned on the TV.

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