The Cricket Farm

The annual cricket tournament of the Bin-Tughlaq Memorial School in Faizalpur, called the Bin-Tughlaq Victors League (BTVL), was to commence in six days. There were about 20 such “annual” tournaments, but this was by far the largest in scale, and participation. The amount of time the school put into this particular gala, overshadowed every other occasion in the school, not least the academics. It was essentially the brainchild of Anmol Modi, a former teacher and games-master in the school. By some convoluted, complex and illegitimate conspiracy, they managed to oust Mr. Modi from his veneered position and substituted him with a lowly helper teacher, whom no one had heard of previously, and never heard of again. The principal had shown his full support to Modi at first, but the support and fame he’d gained in the nearby localities was unprecedented and Principal Karan Singh rued seeing his beloved school gain stardom under a miserly persons extravagant idea. Truth be told, since Modi was shown the boot, the tournament was no longer held with the same pomp and, and atmospheres were much subdued. In the meantime, the other sports prevalent in the school, namely, hockey, basketball, football, athletics, archery (yes, they had it all), continued to suffer from step-fatherly treatment. Negligible fundings were provided, and no attention was paid to them. But, the departments of these various sports used the Modi-Singh fiasco, to their advantage, and it provided leverage for their growth. But, not to be outdone, the Principal sanctioned five more cricket tournaments, not on the same scale as the BTVL, but expansive nonetheless.

The schools cricket team consisted of several players who played, not on the basis of current form and performance, but on the mantle of past performances. The teams captain Manvinder Soni, of the 10th grade had propelled the school to state-wide stardom, when he led them to victory in a Five-5 series (Twenty20 was the norm,but people’s time was precious, and so, Five5 was accepted with blink of an eye). Since then, Soni captained them in every series, and F5 (as it is now called) became the norm. Even the BTVL was a F5 series, running over 15 days, and 30 games. Soni had long stopped being a fantastic cricketer, but his much respected captaincy and man-management skills preserved his place in the team. The other “star players” also ritualistically followed the “class is permanent, form is temporary” adage.

Only, their poor form couldn’t exactly be called ‘temporary’. Tennyson Elbo had been their greatest batsman for aeons, and probably the greatest at school-level cricket ever. He was in the 12th grade, but was old enough to be a college-grad. But, he continually suffered from fitness problems, and it seemed the burden of expectation was too much for him to take. He couldn’t take it anymore, and decided to play his worst. But no matter how much he tried to under-perform, his luck gave way. He’d been trying to get a duck for the last 35 games, but to no avail. He’d chip the ball to third man, but there wouldn’t be one! He’d move away from the stumps, but the ball would miraculously spin away. He’d drive a shot high in the air, but the fielder would inevitably experience butter-fingers. Star F5 performer, Vikram Kumar never seemed to be able to complete a series without injuring himself. It could be attributed to his attraction to the seductions of life, or his complete ignorance for fitness regimes. No one really found out. The last time he played, he broke the left-toe of his right-foot.

Previously, he’d broken his nails, his fingers, pulled his paunch, sorry, stomach muscles, etc. Dawall Perreira was more of a T20 performer, and took ages to score in an F5 game, but he was known to be a solid player, when on form. Sadly both solidity and form, currently evaded him. The players in the schools youth-teams desperately clamoured for a spot in the school team, but the coach turned to them only when he was desperately in need of reinforcements. The sorry state of the veterans, and the excess cricket would slowly begin to take its toll on the results. Tournaments were not won so easily any longer, in fact, Tennyson’s form and Vikrams form was the only constant in the otherwise inconsistent Bin-Tughlaq teams form.

Meanwhile, for the last ten years, the Board of Governors were the body which sponsored all of the schools cricketing activities and provided a spine to Principal Singh’s lavish plans. A lot of the players in the BTVL were under sponsorship of the Board, and the cricketers would seem very hollow if the Board were to detach themselves. And so it did happen. One fine day, the Principal decided to exercise his autocratic side, and shunned every decision the Board had made in a bid to showcase his non-existent superiority. The Board was absolutely stunned!! Never in its decade long history had Singh acted so bizarrely.

They tried to intervene, and exercised all forms of dialogue, but they lost patience and hope, and dissociated themselves from the cricketing aspect. Singh had perhaps failed to the grave indiscretion he had committed, one that would make funds scarce, and support non-existent. It hit him only when the Board revealed to him that they would no longer provide any ‘sahara’ to the school’s cricket department and would instead shift its focus to the development of the plethora of other games the institution offered. It was a no-loss situation for the board, as they had recently invested in a popular, but very elitist sport – horse-racing. That team was previously fully owned by a local businessman, who had encountered some mightily rough weather, and subsequently offloaded half the ownership of his team, which the Board eagerly snapped up.

The Bin-Tughlaq Victors League’s future looks cloudy, so does the future prospect of the game in the school. But, Principal Singh has announced that he will see to it that the BTVL continues, and more cricket is played. Meanwhile, the other departments continue to step out of the shadows, and engulf the space which cricket once occupied.