It’s not just about cricket – How Ranchi shaped the journey of its favourite son

When Pan Singh Dhoni migrated from the Himalayan foothills of Uttarakhand (then Uttar Pradesh) to Ranchi for joining ranks at MECON as a pump operator, he would have not thought how immense his decision would be in the years to come. When his third child was born on July 7, 1981 in the MECON Hospital, the very child held keys to a bright future which went beyond the four walls of his own house. He was christened Mahendra Singh Dhoni and we all know the kind of glory he brought not just for his family but for a wider family of Indians, just about 1.3 billion in numbers.

Dhoni was admitted to the DAV Jawahar Vidya Mandir, a school which was a stone’s throw distance from his father’s company-allotted flat. What stood in between his home and the school was a patch of green that would help him shape his destiny on the cricketing fields in the years to come. This patch of green was called the MECON Stadium which had a centre cricketing pitch and four stands at the corners of the ground to make it good enough for State Ranji Cricket, inter-district and inter-school cricket in the winter season.

Dhoni used to attend school from 8 am in the morning to 1.30 in the afternoon. After that, he used to scamper home for a quick lunch accompanied by a glass of milk. This was followed by a quick revision of the concepts and lessons he learnt at school that day up to around 3 pm. MECON Stadium and the adjoining school ground used to be his calling place after that where the young kid used to do goal-keeping in the myriad football games that used to take place there.

It was the school PT Teacher, Sri Keshav Ranjan Banerjee who turned our rising goal-keeper into one of the safest hands behind the cricket pitch as a wicketkeeper in those years and we all came richer for it. The young Dhoni’s game was characterized by a Yeoman’s spirit and refreshing edge which is a rare talent found in few kids. The school teachers of DAVJVM could recount many of his exploits on the field with the mischievous act of breaking window panes of the school classrooms which stood nearby. The six-hitting capability of Dhoni was exemplified by his strength of arms and able help from his best friend in childhood, Santosh Lal. It was Santosh who taught the young Dhoni the basics of the now world-famous Helicopter shot. Pivoted on the front foot and taking the bat in a 270-degree arc towards long on, this shot not just aided Dhoni in making his rise first from club cricket, district and state cricket but also helped him score the winning runs in the final of ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 against Sri Lanka.

The youngster of DAVJVM who plied his art with elan in the MECON Stadium came of age in the years to come and first represented Bihar in the Ranji Trophy in 1999. We all know about his travails up to his eventual selection for India in 2004 when he worked as a TT in the Indian Railways and played in myriad tennis ball leagues around East India. And when he did make his debut for India, we as cricket fans around the country drew immense inspiration from his exploits as a wicketkeeper-batter and his role as a leader of men who led us to wins in two World Cups in 2007 and 2011, and a Champions trophy in 2013.

The soil of his beloved Ranchi which shaped his career and will always breathe for its favourite son couldn’t help but be happy with Dhoni’s rise through the ranks.

When the paragon of concentration equalled a world record amidst the ruins at Kotla

The key to growth in any field must be reserves of concentration that an individual possesses. The paragon of concentration in Indian cricket, former captain and opener Sunil Gavaskar, showed the value of this quality on many occasions around the world. Sadly, I have never been witness to his methodical batting as far as live action goes. From my limited knowledge of his innings spread across the 1970s and 1980s, his 121 off 128 balls against the West Indies at Kotla in October 1983 holds a special place in the heart. The West Indies were certainly at their prime in Test Cricket during that period if you go through the record books.

Sunny Paaji stood tall against the likes of Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall, Winston Davis and Wayne Daniel and played some exquisite drives and other shots en route his 29th hundred (then joint highest along with Sir Donald Bradman) off just 94 balls. Marshall bowled a lot from around the wicket and Gavaskar had his pulls and hooks ready to the recipe on offer. It was also Sunny's 12th hundred against the West Indies, a staggering 41.38 % of his centuries' tally till then. He himself has always rated his century against England at Old Trafford in 1974 as his best effort. However, the 29th one was special for the fans because of the fact that it equalled a Test record that day and the former India captain was probably entering the last phase of his batting career. Dilip Vengsarkar was an able ally to Sunny Paaji as he mustered a dogged 159 to help India to a first innings score of 464 in what was the second Test of the home series against the aforementioned opponents in the winter of 83-84.

The nearby ruins of Ferozeshah Kotla also houses a fine specimen of Indian metallurgy, i.e., the Iron Pillar which was brought here from neighbouring Meerut in the 14th century by Ferozeshah Tughlaq. It has been witness to many turns in history apart from the small matter of being witness to some great cricketing moments which include the most Test centuries record milestone achieved by Sunil Gavaskar in 1983, and then by Sachin Tendulkar in 2005.

Halcyon days of cricket commentary on radio in India

My memory takes me back to the early 90s on the time spectrum when Narottam Puri, Suresh Sarayya and other radio commentators used to be the rich baritones behind the microphone on AIR. The series between India and England in 1993 was almost exclusively followed by me on radio. The uncertainty of a wicket falling any time on radio is a source of anxiety and excitement at the same time.

The curiosity stemmed from the commentators' vantage point of watching the match and listeners distance from the scene of action. Indeed the likes of Puri and Sarayya always had us listeners beholden to whether Kapil Dev would break the barrier of 431 wickets, whether the youngster Sachin Tendulkar would get a hundred or whether the bespectacled and gentle leg-spinner Anil Kumble would take a five-wicket haul on the given day. Glorious days indeed when radio used to rule our hearts.

When a young wicketkeeper stamped his authority with the bat and lent Kotla an essence of doggedness

The wicketkeeper of Delhi Ranji team, youngster Anuj Rawat played a really riveting knock of 134 against the Madhya Pradesh side in the Elite Group B match between the sides on 23rd December 2018 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium. It was a special knock since most of the other players from both sides till then had fallen off their horsebacks - first Madhya Pradesh had been dismissed for 132 on the first day by a splendid bowling effort from Vikas Mishra who took 6/41, and then Delhi were reduced to 36/5 against the quality pace of Avesh Khan of Madhya Pradesh.

Three days prior to Christmas, Delhi was under the fire of a chilling winter with minimum temperatures in single digits and when Kotla's pitch faced an issue of over-watering which led the game to be delayed by an hour or so on the first day. Strange reason for a delay in matches; but that's cricket in India for you - sometimes players' kits would arrive late and on other times disgruntled officials would leave you in the lurch to make a point or two by protesting to stop water supply to a stadium if complimentary passes are not given to some of the employees of their department (Former England skipper Mike Brearley recounted one such instance that loomed on an Eden Gardens Test years ago between India and England in one of the Pataudi memorial lectures at Kolkata).

The most unique aspect of Rawat's innings was the steely resolve he possessed against some really quick thunderbolts from Khan when he walked out with Delhi reeling at 8/3. He got hit by a fiery bouncer from the speedster when he had just touched double digits. A ball that took off from short of length and hit him real hard - the kind of cricket which makes you shiver and makes you wonder why on earth they call this a gentleman's sport when it is such mean business out there.

The young wicketkeeper, however, was unfazed, and went on to score a century against some quality fast bowling by Avesh Khan and Kuldeep Sen of Madhya Pradesh at the Kotla. The ease with which he cut and pulled from there on, egged by a supportive home crowd, was a sight to behold. Rarely did he falter there upto the moment he got out at his eventual score of 134 with Delhi at 233/8 in the final session of the day.

He constructed two crucial partnerships - first a 60-run stand with Lalit Yadav and then a 118-run stand with Shivam Sharma. Rawat's dogged determination that day was a thing to be felt and experienced sitting in the spectators' arena - at the Mohinder Amarnath stand of the Kotla which was open to the public and where the crowd steadily increased as news of his wondrous fours and sixes (14 and four respectively) spread through the wires. Without doubt, the youngster has immense reserves of steely determination to go along with good technique to stay put at the crease and score well simultaneously. His ability to score fours and sixes against pacers and spinners alike, virtually around the ground, with shots as diverse as late cut, cover drive, off drive, on drive, pull, add reverse sweeps as well apart from defending with ease reminiscent of experienced batsmen of yore. Rawat's batting was simply awesome in one word. The atmospherics of Kotla lent their quaint charm to his innings and old-timers amongst the crowd might have been reminded of a 128 ball 121 by former India opener Sunil Gavaskar against the fearsome pace quartet of West Indies in the winter of 1983.

It is a fact of life, as Paulo Coelho has so beautifully laid out in 'The Alchemist' that if one is determined to achieve a noble goal, the universe conspires to help you achieve that as the cricketing atmospherics of Kotla helped the young Rawat to a valiant 134 out of his side's score of 261. The young wicketkeeper joins ranks amongst a formidable set of wicketkeepers who represent various sides on the Indian cricketing scene. He is still around 19 and has a long way to go but any one who was witness to his elegant and cracking batsmanship on that day would affirm that the youngster has a bright future, if he keeps up his determination going forward.

Brief scores: MP (132 and 157) lost to Delhi (261 and 31/1) by 9 wickets.

Cricket minus game dynamics = pure joy

Beyond the realm of the apparent lies the world of happiness and solace. The moment I saw that little angel on the Karnail Singh Stadium during the Group A Ranji Trophy game between Vidarbha and Railways, I felt a certain sense of elation that any soul wanting and longing eternal joy would have.

The serene settings of the Karnail Singh Stadium amidst the ruins and newness of New Delhi are as oxymoronic as literary liberty would allow it to be, yet it has an old world charm which lends any game of cricket the vital coat of authenticity that it commands at times. The third session of the first day of the group game was on between the aforementioned sides. Railways pacer Manjeet Singh and off-spinner Madhur Khatri were operating in tandem and were trying their level best to dislodge a potentially formidable partnership between the Vidarbha duo of Akshay Wadkar and Mohit Kale. The two of them had stitched together a worthwhile contribution of around 90 runs after a minor collapse had struck their team in the earlier session where they had lost three wickets for 15 runs within a matter of 7.2 overs as Vidarbha slid from 89/1 to 104/4.

The cricket was mildly intense and the terrain quite old-worldly as discussed above in terms of charm - a handful of spectators thrown around with officials, groundstaff and players all going about their business with a lazy slumber which one would expect is easily induced on a winter afternoon in Delhi.

Untouched and unaffected by all these pretensions or seriousness of an inflated sense of self-importance that cricket could very easily induce, a little angel in the form of a boy of around 5-6 years of age emerged out of the Athletics enclosure of the stadium on to the outer cricketing turf of the stadium. There was a group of mynahs which were going about having fun on the grass and to my wondrous surprise, our little angel was playing the chidiyabaaz to the flock, shooing them away. Absolute joys of childhood! Lo and behold! And yet before you could say these words, our angel disappeared as soon as he had emerged leaving behind a joyous memory one could cherish for ages. The best things in life come for free afterall and yes cricket was freed from its trappings that day for me in a sense, reminding me of my own co-operative ground and its sparrows.