Vidarbha: Cricket
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
2018: wins Ranji Trophy
A Ranji Miracle, January 3, 2018: The Times of India
On New Year’s Day, Vidarbha shows how cricket has grown beyond its traditional centres
On January 1, six decades after they started playing the Ranji Trophy tournament and in their first-ever final, Vidarbha tamed seven time winners Delhi by nine wickets and a day to spare. This dramatic upsurge in Vidarbha’s fortunes is a telling comment on how talent has spread far and wide in cricket. Last year the tournament was witness to another electrifying upset, when Gujarat too won their maiden title by defeating overwhelming favourites Mumbai, who have captured the trophy a record 41times. Cricket now is truly broad-based.
The hallmark of Vidarbha’s performance has been consistency and team effort, where it is tough to give the entire credit to a single player or two. Nothing illustrates this better than the fact that Vidarbha’s only player in the national squad – pace bowler Umesh Yadav – was available for just one match in the knockout phase. It was another pacer, Rajneesh Gurbani, who got the secondhighest wickets in the tournament: a total of 39 scalps. Vidarbha won four out of six league games before defeating eight-time champions Karnataka in the semi-final. Credit must also go to coaches Chandrakant Pandit and Subroto Banerjee who instilled confidence in the younger players. Veteran Wasim Jaffer was a calming influence on the team, ably led by skipper Faiz Fazal.
Kudos too to the Vidarbha Cricket Association, which laid the groundwork by investing in an academy in 2009. Its emphasis was on spotting talent in districts beyond Nagpur. At the same time IPL has provided players from tier 2, 3 and 4 cities a perfect platform to showcase their ability at the national level. Thanks to better coaching methods coupled with aggressive talent scouting, the grassroots are really delivering the goods.
