TPL Diary (I)

11 January 2011- So it’s really on now and we’re in it for good. When I first saw the posters in MT and Kunchok came up with the suggestion of participating nearly a month ago I had mildly laughed at it. A cricket tournament calling itself the Tibetan Premier League? Ha! Looking back I see it was nothing but my own aversion to quick decision-making and new ventures. It doesn’t look like such a crazy idea now. Within 5 minutes of discussion we had forged a skeleton team and when he called me the next day about the entry fee I knew it was time to get serious.

During my two weeks break at home, I played in a match against Bir. We won a nailbiter but my own contribution was meager. I wasn’t surprised since I hadn’t played a proper match in almost 2 years. Facing the opening bowler, I was only too aware of the uncertainty and the discomfort that seemed to permeate my body. It was nothing but fear. I was thinking about the ways the leather ball would hit my body when I should have been thinking about the ways it would hit my bat.
Well, I have almost a week and a half to clear up my head now.

15 January 2011, Rohini District Park-They don’t have a team at the Youth Hostel so we are playing among ourselves. It takes a while for the whole team to show up but time is not a bother- it’s Saturday and we have the whole ground to ourselves. We pair up into five teams with each team getting a maximum of 4 overs to bat and with everyone else fielding. At the end of two rounds I reckon we were out on the field for almost 20-25 overs which is not bad for a practice. I bowl 5 overs and nearly switch to bowling harmless off spinners near the end out of exhaustion. But I am happier with my batting. Mentally I was much more relaxed maybe because it was practice. I need to make up my mind about my selection of shots though. I made a mess of a few juicy full tosses, stuck in confusion about whether to drive them or heave them and ended up playing an ugly nothing shot. So I decide I’d be better off driving them which is more suited to my approach and cut out completely the good old heave from the equation.

I wonder why I am so weak on the leg side since most people tend to be stronger on their leg side. I can think of a possible combination of reasons – my left handedness and a peculiar rule during my school. We used to play on this basket court along the one side of which ran our school boundary. Since it was tough job fetching the ball whenever it was hit over the boundary, we made such shots illegal. So you were out if you hit the ball over the boudary. To most (right handers), the boundary was on their off side which meant they couldn’t play any cuts or attempt at any expansive off drives. For me (and Rinchen who’s also playing), we had to play mostly on our off side or straight. Leg side shots were a big no-no and i guess i continue to carry this mental block about the leg side. So anything outside the off stump, my eyes they kind of light up and anything on the leg side, i get myself tied in a knot.