Best Buddies - Cricket means parties- Part 9

Part - 8
Part - 7
Part - 6
Part - 5
Part - 4
Part - 3
Part - 2
Part - 1

“Please do not leave your seats. We have returned to the Dubai airport due to some technical fault in the airline. We will back on the runway in 30minutes from now. There is nothing to panic about and kindly co-operate with the crew. Thank You.” came in the announcement of the pilot from the cockpit.

But as expected everyone in the plane did panic. There was loads of confusion and chaos. The noise was beginning to get on my nerves. I mean can’t just these people relax. They have landed back for their safety only and these people know their work. Can’t they let them do it by themselves? Everyone wants to try their hands in every new field.

I quietly put on my I-pod earphones and began to listen to the music. My seat was away from the rest of the team just because of some goof-up by the airline people. And then I just casually closed my eyes but then did not even realize when did I fall asleep.

Then came in the announcement, which woke me up.
“Please use your seat belts as we are ready to take off.”

I turned around to check if everything was in order and then turned back to tie the seat belt.

But wait, before I went to sleep some small girl was sitting next to me. Now all of a sudden she looked like one of my age. And then she looked beautiful in the sky blue dress that she was wearing.

And then she goes like,
“You are Nikhil from the school cricket team right?”

“Umm…..yeah.”, trying to act a bit over-smart.
Now whose she? And how does she know me.

“Hi. I am Miloni. The Indian School. 11th grade.”

I looked at her face, expressionless.

“Oh…so you are from my school. So where you heading to in Kolkatta.”

“To check you out.” And then after a brief pause, “playing cricket of course. You are going for the CBSE Annual Meet right?”

“Yeah. You seem to know a lot about me.”

“More then you can think of.”

And then the conversation kicked of which lasted for the rest of the flight.

While checking out at the airport, I asked her to come watch me play at a match and she had promised to do so.

I had my fingers crossed as I deeply wished her to come see me play.
Talking to her so felt like those days in India with Ishita and some of my other friends.


After landing in Kolkatta, while collecting our luggage their was another goof-up with the luggage’s as we were not aware where could we collect our luggage from and nor were the airport officials aware.

But soon things were sorted. All’s well that ends well.

But who said this was the end. This was I can say just the trailer. The movie is still left.

We caught the rickshaws for the hotel. It was early evening when we actually totally checked out of the airport so it was peak time and huge traffic jams.


And then our rickshaw driving trying to act smart to beat the traffic lost the follow up of the rickshaw in front of us, which had our coach who was aware of the route.

So we were lost in Kolkatta on the day of arrival itself. And also lost with us was another rick following us. So six of us lost in a new city. And then on top of this, it was that most of them were coming to India after ages and they expected me to find a solution as I have lived in India for so many years and these people assumed every place to be same like Dubai, in short Mumbai and Kolkatta is just the same with different names.

We went around the city for like almost for an hour hunting for the hotel. And then suddenly it stuck Namit, the fast bowler of the team that he has the address in his bag.

“Don’t you think you remembered it really fast.” Came in frustration from another teammate.

“Be happy, atleast he remembered guys.” Came in another and then we joked off the matter.

I took the address paper in my hand and after asking a few people we realized that we were standing right outside the hotel entrance and searching for.

Then came in Namit,

“Actually, I wanted to take you people on a ride around Kolkatta.”

Ya, right.

Luckily for him most of us were half dead or else he would have been.

So tired with the day’s happenings that we just dropped the bags in our room and off to sleep, skipping dinner.

And then the very next day we also had our practice match against some local school.

It was a rather weird climate out there. Just when we would think its going to rain, the sun will come out, shining bright.

But then it was indeed a good match. The ground was really well maintained and so was the pitch. A rather simple win I must say. The warm up session gave us a lot of confidence and an idea of what can we expect from weather, pitch and the ball.

The tournament was scheduled to get over within a fortnight.

Each team plays seven matches, in all eight teams, top four play the semi-finals in the knockout format and the winners of the semi-finals battle it out for the top slot.
Not really as simple as it sounds.

We were going to play the best teams from North, South, East and West India. In India cricket is indeed a religion. I mean if people are crazy in India about anything then it got to be Sensex, Bollywood, and Cricket. I had seen the fantasy behind all this, living 17years in Mumbai was enough to know this.

For people in India, they just die for a chance to be in a cricket tourney. Once in, they forget everything else, family and school is of no importance leave giving it even a second thought.


Well, after the trials we had some time to relax so just went around the hotel and a lot of timepass. The swimming pool was on the top floor, with Sauna and Jacuzzi. We all were having a blast of a time. I mean we just didn’t realize that time was flying by and we had an important inaugural match the very next day.


The day’s activity had kept us so busy that none of us had even bothered calling up back home that we have reached safely. So pretty late in the night when we realized, all of us ran to the nearest ISD booth.

Almost everyone of us got a nice hearing. But then it was time to pay for the calls.

“What none of us have carried our wallets?” came in Ansh.

“Wait Namit has his wallet.” Replied a teammate.

“Then pay the bill dude, we will give you back in the hotel.” Said Ansh.

“Will 50 Rupees be enough.” Asked Namit.

“You better had not brought the wallet.” Ansh expressing his anger.

In a hurry to make the call, we just left the hotels in a rush, with none of us bothering to carry our wallets.

Just when Sanjay and I offered to go back to the hotel and get the cash, our coach happened to be passing by and paid off the bill.

We went back to our respective hotel rooms. I was sharing the room with Sanjay and Manek. Just before sleeping we all started laughing off like crazy over the incident.

The inaugural match was supposed to be an exciting and a tough match for us, but we had it off with a simple win and the party had just begun.

A simple first match got us really a lot in the party mood. We would just wait to get back to the hotel and hog all the food laid out for us, enjoy at the disc for a while, lay down in the swimming pool, watch movies. It was like we had not come here for a high level tournament rather for a holiday. The only restriction being all of us stayed indoors within the hotel premises.

We ate like crazy and everything and anything served was over in just minutes after being laid down. I am sure the hotelkeepers were having a tough time keeping up with us.

So basically I broke the first instruction from Mom about being careful about my eating habits. I mean I was just dragged towards the food so I just couldn’t help it. After the first match we enjoyed like we had win the cup.

So the next day was a huge shock for us. We were thrashed in a manner similar to which we had beaten the other team in the inaugural match. It surely did the job of getting us on our toes. So we again got back to our practice sessions.

The third match we played hard and did snatch of a win. We really tried and covered up the mistakes of the previous outing. And so the fun rounds started all over again without bothering for the next match.

The fourth match had a nail-biting finish. It was the last over and I was trembling as we needed just 10runs to win. They had their best bowler in the attack. And somehow I gave away my weakness to him in the first two balls. But I managed to get 6runs with a ball to spare. I was really nervous, as I knew he knows what to bowl to me and I wasn’t wrong. Just with 4runs away from a win, I was bowled.

With this I broke the instruction of my coach of not letting away the weakness. I was really sad that day. The entire teams hopes were pinned upon me and I just couldn’t see those dejected faces of letting them down.

Four matches over, we had won two and lost two.

And then I was rested for the fifth match or basically dropped. That made me feel even more low. My mood became really bad. We won this encounter.

So that evening I just left the hotel on a stroll.

That was breaking dad’s instruction of not going out alone.

Around after 10minutes or so it started raining heavily out of nowhere. The hotel was way back and I would be completely wet by then.

A rickshaw driver offered to drop me back to the hotel but God only knows where all he took me. Some unknown street in this unknown city. My blood was like just freezing. And then he started of with some of his story tales about some murder and crimes.

I was already scared of him and on top of that all this. Then suddenly he stopped somewhere in between some chawl type of house and he goes like,

“Here normally all types of guns are kept”

Then he drove met out to another chawl,

“Saheb, want to try something tonight.”

“Nahin, just take me to the hotel.”, having no idea what he meant. I realized much later that he was talking about drugs.

He dropped me back at the same place where he had picked me up from and I felt like banging his head right their. But scared with the outing I quietly paid him the cash and left.

But the rains continued and there was no way I could reach the hotel.

Then someone pulled me below a roof.

Initially I thought it would be someone I know but then when I turned back, I didn’t recognize him. How would have I even, I had never met that person earlier.

I was feeling a bit scared now as I was new to the place and getting back to the hotel would be difficult as it was really getting dark then. And then that rickshaw Walla.


Luckily the rains stopped and I just rushed back to the hotel without even thanking the person. Actually it was also because of his presence I was feeling scared as thinking he would me some person related to that rickshaw Walla.

After reaching the hotel, that same person greeted me. He was the hotel manager. He had recognized me, but I had not. I thanked him and returned to my room.

Sanjay and Manek were just going out to ask if anyone had seen me as I was missing from the hotel since more than an hour now.

I told them what had happened and they just couldn’t help laughing. But I promised myself of never venturing out alone in this city.

I didn’t even play the sixth match as I myself opted to stay out. I was in a mental trauma.
Unfortunately we lost this game and the last match of the first round became all the more crucial.

We were playing our rivals from the Gulf. The winner was assured a seat in the semis and the loser would have to pack their bags. I was playing this match.

I surely did not pack mine. The opponent team was already exhausted, as they did not rotate the playing 11 and that clicked for us. We had a comfortable win and cruised in the semifinals.

In the semis we had lost to all the other three teams qualified so it would become really tough from now onwards. As the team in the semis would be tough to get over, and even if we did, it would be really tough to topple the opponent in the final.

But time would have its say.

For the time being the party fever was back but not so much fun as the seven back to back matches had drained all the energy out of us.

We paid back the opponents in the same coin. Basically we beat them in a similar fashion they had beaten us in the first round and we cruised into the CBSE Annual Meet finals.

We achieved this after 20years. 20years back we had reached the finals, and also won it. So expectations were really high upon us to achieve this feat once again.

The finals was going to be enthralling end to the tournament with loads more than just cricket going to happen their. It was going to be massive closing ceremony to the event.

But we all had the eyes on the trophy to take it back on that plane to Dubai. I was already thinking of how exciting it would be to have won that cup 20years back and got carried away to myself having got to hold it.

The finals started in a manner we had just desired. We won the toss and elected to bat first. All started well with giving a target of 225 in 25overs. The match also saw the first century of the tournament by me. I left my heart back in Dubai and played the knock I was longing to play for a really long time.

Victory was almost sealed with that target, as those were the highest runs ever on board on that ground.

But the second innings wasn’t as good for me as the first one. I dropped a crucial catch of the wicketkeeper captain of the opposite team who was in full form in the tournament. If I had caught that he would have been back in the pavilion for just 7runs.

Some how we got back into the game and their wickets kept falling. We were more interested in sending them back to the pavilions and just ignored the fashion or speed with which their score was building up.

It was in the last 5overs we actually realized that they needed just 30runs in the last five overs, with 3wickets in hand. So we had to decide upon a strategy, either to get them all over or waste the last 5overs. Their captain was still on crease.

Ansh was of the view that it would be really tough to hang them on for next 30 balls. So decided to attack to get the lower order out. I and Sanjay were of the view that not to let the captain take strike and waste the balls. But it was really difficult to make him understand and so we just dropped it.

Ansh trick paid of in the first over as their 8th wicket fell. But then their captain smartly kept the strike with him and went behind our bowlers and sealed of the win for them with 2overs and 2wickets to spare.

We had lost the match we should have won.

That was surely not the manner in which we desired to end the series. I was awared the man of the match but that was of less importance as I saw the trophy going to the opponents in front of my eyes.

That night again my mood was really low. Everyone was out partying trying to forget what happened.

I couldn’t go out with them, as somewhere I was to blame for the defeat by dropping that catch.

For a moment I felt so like quitting cricket.

I just wished if Ishaan and Ranbir would be their then. We wish so many thing to happen which never actually do happen.

Then again knocked at the door. I ran as if it was going to be Ishaan and Ranbir. I was crazy. It was Sanjay who was asking me to come down. I told him to carry on and I would join him in a few minutes.

Then again the phone rang. It would be someone or the other asking me to come down. I felt just like disconnecting the line.

I picked up the phone and just started of,
“I am coming down.”

But some one else replied. I mean it was from the reception.
“Sir there is a call for you.”


Call for me. Who would be calling me at like 10 in the night? No one even knows which hotel I am in.

...to be continued...