Unforgettable College days at RKMV...

'This post is my entry for 'My College Diary' contest held by travel blog My Yatra Diary in collaboration with Collegedunia.com'

This is an ideal opportunity for me to write something that is unforgettable and memorable in my life. Like everyone else, college life has been a beautiful part in my life. And the best part is my final year. I suppose everyone used to enjoy their college life to the most for the first two years and will concentrate on their academics during the final year. But, you know what, I did exactly the opposite of what others do. I spent most of my first two years with books, library, and other academic materials. And spent most of my final year with the bat (cricket & badminton). Most part of my final year was spent on the cricket ground, which is one of my favourite place at college.

My College, R.K.M. Vivekananda college (RKMV), which is particularly famous about cricket has an outstanding cricket ground. It is thoroughly maintained by club. They used to water the pitch and outfield on a daily basis and graze the green outfield regularly. I have watched as a spectator, Krishnamachari Srikkanth and Murali Vijay loft the ball over the long-on fence for a six. Yes, the same Vijay who scored 52 today against Australia in the first innings at Adelaide. Both of them are RKMV alumni and there are lot more on the list. Watching them play their elegant strokes from the pavilion was a visual treat for any cricket lover. Being an ardent cricket enthusiast, I literally wanted to be in their spot, picking up the over-pitched/short-pitched/width outside-off stump/tossed up delivery, play my own stroke, and watch the ball diverge through the fielders, sparkle over the tiny green outfield to the boundary.

And then came, interdepartmental tournament in our college. This happened to make my dream, a reality. Before getting into an actual tournament, I started my preparation. The pre-tournament preparation was a fun filled part that I used to do along with my friends. We bunk classes, in the name of practice; but go to a movie instead. We usually don’t go to ground after bunking classes, but if at all we reached the ground, we sleep there or chit-chat some nonsense instead of just playing. Someway or other, we end up practicing at least a bit before going on to the actual tournament. But honestly, we have a bunch of passionate players, who will play their nerves out when it comes to business.

First few matches were very easy for us as we were working strongly as a unit with an excellent coordination among the team members. Being a captain, I planned and executed every single move to the perfection, with complete support from my team.

One match that I would like to quote here is our semi-final against English Department. They had some refined stroke players who can play some neat strokes against swing bowlers. Unfortunately, my team had a bunch of swing bowlers, who were actually doing great so far in the tournament, was struggling on that day. After trying all moves, I took up the position behind the umpire for a run-up facing the batsman, who demolished all my bowlers in that match.

I just took five steps and bowled a good length delivery without any seam movement, which struck in front of middle-length line, huge appeal backed by my team, umpire lifted his hand as he can’t resist our appeal, and the devastating player is gone. Relax! Actually, the ball went low after pitching and struck his pads just above the ankle, unlucky for him and a gift for me. Later on in that match, I sent back a good length delivery over covers for a boundary playing a back-foot lofted drive. Everybody in that arena appreciated me for that shot including the bowler himself. Wow! What a moment it was. Simply amazing!

Yep! We won the tournament at ease against the History department. After all, they are the one with whom we used to ‘practice’ with. Hope you understand what I meant by 'practice'.

For me, Cricket is not just a game but something beyond that. I learned many personal as well as professional insights such as communication, coordination, leadership, team handling and many more and that's the reason I RESPECT cricket. I am not a cricketer now, but the skills I acquired is still with me. I am just sharpening those skills to come up in my life. 

I would like to tag this with Ananya, Vinay Nagaraju, Rohan Chaubey and Maniparna as I feel they will be interested about this contest. Moreover, I like their cool writing style and expecting a creative article from them.