Finally! I watched a Ranji final at the ground....

[StatsRock]

In April of 1984, I had rushed back home after finishing my Class 2 English test on the last day of the school year to listen to AIR's commentary of Bombay vs Delhi, with Bombay about 106/1. It took me 30 years to make it to the Stadium, after a couple of botched attempts(in 2003 and 2004). I was lazily checking the score yesterday around lunch and found Maharashtra had set up a chase of 154. So off I went hoping to see an interesting Innings 4, although 366 on Innings 3 suggested it would be a routine chase for Karnataka The Uppal Stadium is in the middle of no-man's land. Which is quite sensible in the event of an international game, since 20000 people making attending a game could well bring the town's traffic to a standstill. I noticed people getting in at Gate 5(free entry). Looking at the stadium's layout on the web, I thought Gates 1 and 2 could get me the ideal behind-the-sightscreen view. So I asked the security guard for directions to Gate 1. The dude directed me without telling me that those gates are meant for officials and barred to the public. :whack: So I wasted a good 10 minutes walking around and then getting back to Gate 5. The roars of the tiny crowd bore evidence that I had just missed 2 sixes and 2 fours from the Rahul-Uthappa opening duo. As I climbed the stairs onto the bleachers, I watched leg slip pocket a top edge from Uthappa(36) and Karnataka was 65-1. The scoreboard showed Ganesh Satish as the next man for a good 15 minutes or so, only to change it to Amit Verma once realization set in. Darekar ambled in and promptly Verma was dropped by the keeper of a sharp edge, the bowler audibly expressing his frustration. At the other end KL Rahul was rock solid as usual, middling the ball in defence. Meanwhile I looked around - the stadium was terribly kept, the bleachers wer e dusty and dirty, the food courts had no vendors. You only saw a couple of poor fellas walking around selling samosas and peanuts. Dirty paper cups lay in a huge pile while giant cobwebs lined the rafters. Perhaps nobody bothered to spruce it up since it was a domestic game? The facilities at the Wankhede where I attended a Test 12 years ago were not even to be compared with. The crowd wasnt so neat either, mostly hecklers trying to have a good time by baiting failed attempts by the fielding side. Well, not all of them though. Fallah operated at the other end and I thought he had a decent bit of pace. However no hint of swing or movement at all. Verma looked very impressive - he would drill a four close to the frequency of one an over. I guess that is why he was sent in ahead of Ganesh Satish. As Rahul held up the other end, Verma smacked Darekar for a straight six and a four through cover. Mundhe replaces Fallah and promptly gets Rahul caught at slip with a quicker one. Pandey comes in and rotates the strike, with Verma lashing another boundary(22 off 25). 2 more fours follow off Darekar and Khurana, he is very good at making quick feet adjustments, creates room and whacks it past cover. I think he got about 5 boundaries that way. It's close to tea when Verma blasts a rasping straight drive, Khurana dives for a great caught and bowled. Players leave. I go outside the gates for a drink. There are a couple of cart-vendors selling lemonade. The water looks dodgy but I get a drink and return, this time finding a spot right in line with square leg. Karnataka resume at 120-3, 34 more to win. Karun Nair replaces Verma. The in-form youngster looks very competent, solid in defence. He barely makes his presence felt but keeps the score ticking with singles. Pandey rotates the strike as well as Karnataka inch their way slowly. After a while, he opens up against Fallah and picks up 2 fours, the second he plants his foot down the track and whacks it Hayden-style past square leg. 141-3. I turn back and make conversation with 2 elderly gentlemen in the row behind me. Apparently one of them tried to make it to the Test match against Australia(Murali Vijay 167 game?) but there were not enough tickets for the public. Or some such reason. Couple overs go by, then with 10 left, Karun Nair whacks a four and lofts a straight six to win the championship. Karnataka players come racing out of the pavilion to grab the stumps. I scoot to a tiny section of cheering Karnataka fans, waving a flag. Dosas have made Poli out of the Wadapavs. :two_thumbs_up: Oh by the way, I had recently got a blackberry given away by my brother. I was wondering why he stopped using an 18K phone. I got the answer today - the camera does not work! I am feeling very pissed. As it usually happens, the MOM ceremony gets set up just in front of the sightscreen. Which means the general spectators are way far off and have no clue what is going on. I am wondering if it was VB Chandrasekar or Ravi Shastri doing the presentation. It does sound like Shastri's voice. KL Rahul gets the MOM and speaks a few words. Losing skipper Motwani speaks as well. By now, we were all out of the our seats and have made our way to the barricade, hoping the Karnataka team would come on a victory lap closer to us. But meanwhile, an old security mama comes out whistling and orders us all to leave. Apparently he got orders from top. Typical brainless retards! :whack: You dont have the option of buying tickets for the expensive and more comfortable seats and you are getting driven out in the middle of the presentation. A couple of guys plead with the guard and insist they are going to hand over the trophy now. We buy some ten minutes of time. So while the Karnataka players pose with the trophy at the other end, we are a tiny group of about 25 people cheering. We are the tiny group in the background, you can even spot a yellow and red Karnataka flag in the crowd. The crowd is now shouting "Beku, Beku, Vinay Beku" hoping the team would take a victory run to us with the Cup. "Barbeku, Barbeku, Vinay Barbeku" - the chant goes on. A few of the players look at us and decide to trot in our direction as the cheering gets louder. They had trotted about 10 steps then stop and wave at us. Promptly they turn back to the direction of the dressing room. Perhaps Vinay Kumar thought we had Faulkner and Watson in our midst :haha: The guards again tell us to leave. I think it was Sreenath Aravind who came running to us, and throws us another Karnataka flag over the barricade. So now the crowd leaves for the Gate 1 entrance hoping to see the players. I have time to kill so I accompany the 15 or so guys to Gate 1. Of course the guard doesnt let us in. This is the gate the Karnataka team bus is supposed to take. The fellows go up to the guard and say "Vinay Kumar wants to meet us here" :hysterical: It does not work. So finally there it is. A bunch of 15 people standing outside the big gate, waiting for a glimpse of their heroes who have just won the Premier sporting championship in the country. I walk off towards the bus stop, a lifelong wish fulfilled. As I leave, I pause to think - a few years ago I went to this routine NBA game between the visiting Lakers and the Warriors, it was a sellout that was attended by 19200 fans, the ticket cost a bomb but still people sucked up and purchased it. I started from work at 5PM, drove 2 hours in traffic, then 45 minutes on the train to make it, and ultimately reached home at 1130PM. Six and half hours and about $150 investment for a no-consequence league game in the NBA. And for the final of India's premier sporting championship, it is a free entry where only 200 heads showed up. As I watched KL Rahul defend ball after ball, I was thinking this was how Rahul Dravid made it - defend 250 balls to score a 120 in front of empty stands for years, then make it up to international level, and culminate in history-making 233 or a 270. Really wonder how many Dravids we could have produced if only our retarded BCCI morons made Ranji compulsory for team selection and brought in the crowds. Signing off now..and oh, Congrats Karnataka! :two_thumbs_up:

[cowboysfan]

:two_thumbs_up::two_thumbs_up:good report.

[vvvslaxman]

Good for you man. Wish i had watched atleast one final.

[StatsRock]

Good for you man. Wish i had watched atleast one final.

I wanted to go from Pune to Mumbai to watch a day of the 2003 Mumbai-TN final but stupid manager did not give leave. In 2004, I'd booked tickets to Chennai for another Mumbai-TN final - good that I bailed out, Mumbai scored some 220/0. Would not have gone if it TN had scored that much.

[diga]

Verma looked very impressive - he would drill a four close to the frequency of one an over. I guess that is why he was sent in ahead of Ganesh Satish.

Ganesh Satish was injured.. Nice report.. Would have been good if BCCI had scheduled the match at either team's home ground :two_thumbs_up:

[tweaker]

I have not seen any Ranji Match.I hope to watch one this season.

[Cricketics]

Good stuff buddy. I really want to visit a Ranji Game whenever I visit back home. Good on you. Good post.

[StatsRock]

From the Hindu: http://www.thehindu.com/sport/cricket/karnataka-ends-its-14year-ranji-title-drought/article5645513.ece Later, first-innings centurion Ganesh Satish flicked left-arm medium-pacer Samad Fallah to the fence, and sent left-arm spinner Akshay Darekar sailing over long-on for a huge six to demonstrate how fourth-innings batting could be approached on a track like this. LOL! I wonder if this guy VV Subrahmanyam attended the game or prepared the report from CI or Star Sports. If he had been there, he would have known that the scoreboard got Verma as Ganesh for a long time and then corrected it. Or just a plain typo.

[diga]

Karnataka collected the winner’s purse of Rs.2 crore and the trophy from BCCI vice-president N. Shivlal Yadav, while runner-up Maharashtra picked Rs. 1 crore

Good prize money.. how much is the IPL winners purse?

[adi B]

good write.i too want to watch the ranji (especially if delhi gets to the final),watch them win their 8th title

[coffee_rules]

Good write up. The NBA comparison is more with IPL tamasha we have every year.

[StatsRock]

Advice for those watching a Ranji game: 1. Eat well - some of the stuff you get there will pack you straight to the hospital 2. Get your phone/camera/binoculars/sunglasses/caps/sunshades ready for use 3. Convince some cricket knowledgeable friends to accompany. 4. Multi-task after the over is bowled : remember there are no replays if you miss something. 5. Try to find a quiet spot. Sit with the hecklers only if you are bored with the action. 6. Bring your own water. 7. Tone down expectations - it is depressing as s6it to go there and find the general public around the area has no clue about what is going on. If you say youre going to the cricket, they will stop and ask if IPL is going on. (I have no clue how the players chose cricket as a career - to get out there and play in the sun without even a single crow watching).

[adi B]

I have been to fsk stadium plenty of times,the arrangements are absolutely **** for test matches..the basement is literally like a tabela with terrible quality of supplies..its only during IPL and ckt20 when the arrangements look better and the atmosphere becomes electrifying inside the stadium..bcci,ddca should look to improve the state of the stadium during tests and ranji matches

[Sidhoni]

Nicely written. Congrats. :two_thumbs_up:

[Dinx - the Jinx]

Nice post. Should be moved to the article section. I have watched a few Ranji matches myself out of which 1 was a final between TN and KAR in 1996 or 97 in Chennai. Karnataka under Kumble captaincy won that match easily. Rahul Dravid played that match but I didnt know at that time how he looked though, as he was yet to make his international debut. Watched Kumble, Srinath, Prasad, Dodda Ganesh, Sunil Joshi etc. Almost half of indian team at that time was from Karnataka. Robin Singh was the lonely India player on the TN squad. The other significant match I watched was a QF between Karnataka and Bengal. I actually watched it from the Pavilion stands where the players and coaches sit. Karnataka won and I took pictures with Rahul Dravid which I posted in ICF sometime back. i also had pictures with Amarnath, the then West Bengal coach.

[G_B_]

excellent write up. I too visited the Wankhede to watch Mumbai v Orissa recently and it was a good experience.

[cricraja]

Good write up. I was at the game, but was lucky enough to be watching it from very close quarters, with my family. You need to know someone for sure (unless you have a printed invitation, which again you need to someone from the HCA, to get one) if you have to enter from Gate-1. My brother called for us, once we were at the gate-1, and there we got in right before the game started (8.50 a.m), till all the celebrations were done. I am not going to lie to you, it was quite a sight, watching from right behind the Maharasthra bench and next to where the Ranji trophy was placed. Both my sons were thrilled to see the trophy from such a close vicinity (from about 7-8 feet). The presentation ceremony as some might have witnessed was conducted by Shastri in the presence of Shivlal Yadav and BCCI honcho Anirudh Chaudary. Of course there was Roger Binny in the midst. Vinay's wife came too, and posed with the trophy. One advantage of getting into an empty stadium is a chance to freelance the stadium which we did, especially if you are close to the players area. They also let us enjoy the lunch buffet they set up for the club members, and all the special guests that showed up. Excellent food. Of course BCCI can afford that. Pretty decent menu, catered to perfection. Also good to know, you are part of the passionate crowd waving from the far end (Gate-5) post-game with the flag. Your voices were heard all the way to the presentation area. So all and all a great day the final. No need to write much about the game as you did a very good job describing the day's action.

[StatsRock]

cricraja, Thank you for the comments and welcome to ICF :two_thumbs_up: Glad that you had a good time watching the full day's play.

[coffee_rules]

glad to read the good experience of cricraja, but it gets me mad about the shifarish culture of India. We have to know somebody to get around. Aam janta ka koi haisiyat hi nahin.