Adi's Club Cricket Blog

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Adi's Club Cricket Blog

Postby meninblue » Sun Oct 07, 2012 7:57 am

I am resuming club cricket after a decades gap. :joydance The pro monsoon club season is expected to resume on the day of "Dussehra" festival later in this month. My decision has been backed by my club mates, coach, wifey and others who are dear to me.

That's what prompted me to change my username as well. Enough of sitting in comfort of my home and office to criticize international cricketers. Now it's the time to play more practically than chit chat. Maybe now i will find out how tough the game of cricket is once i am on the field playing proper cricket :| The formats we play are 20 overs, 40 overs, 50 overs and two innings matches.

It's nice to be around some professional club mates and coach. One of the club mate / friend being Rohit's coach. He's backed me to come back to cricket during few session of drinks. The coach being a who's who in Mumbai cricketing circle. He's served two tenures , each of four years as MCA committee member under the leadership of ICC chief Sharad P, and was involved in selection of Indian cricket team during his tenure. Some other clubbies playing as well as doing jobs in cricketing profession like coaching/umpiring/ground administrators of 2011 WC etc. The club too is a renowned one in Mumbai and sponsored by Indian companies. They give us their sponsored logo based clothes, kit bags and we have to wear them during our annual 15 day cricket tour to cities /states apart form Mumbai/Maharashtra. Although, this time i won't be able to do cricket tours out of Mumbai/Maharashtra due to job and family reasons.

Personally, i don't know how successful i am going to be. It will take few months atleast to bag the "Best batsman of the Series ' awards etc In spite of having batted previously at 4 in 90% of my club matches, i might be moved anywhere in the batting order. I still think my coach remembers my batting order and he will keep me in the middle order. Expecting few katoris (edges) fetching fours at fine leg / third man during the initial comeback days. However, i have beenwatching the batters and fielders closely about technical skills of batting, fielding and diving. My gym sessions for the past 4 years will help. Also for past 5 months, my gym sessiona have been modified especially for the batting and fielding aspects. As there is better understanding of cricketing skills than i had when i played during my school and college days, i am hopeful about exploiting the experience to the fullest. However, practically the in touch club bowlers might have my wicket for breakfast for the first few months or so in the nets as well as in club matches. Fielding wise too i will have to catch up a lot during high catch and slip practice sessions. It will take some months at fielding to to be on par with the regular clubbies or what i was in the beginning of my club career. My coach always thought we as a useless specialist bowler at club level even though i was one of the best at street cricket. In his views i am a candidate for selection as specialist batsman rather than a specialist or even part time bowler.

Have to buy a new helmet. My old grilled helmet has not been returned by one clubmate for so long. The cricket bat has worn off after lasting long enough. The pads, thigh pads, abdo guard , chest guard, elbow guard and the whites need to be purchased gradually. Okay i am over estimating Mumbai wickets for bounce but you never know when someone bowls a bimmer at club level to hit the forearm or anywhere on upper body. :lol:

How my idols who will help me indirectly.
Sachin: Technique, composure, determination, patience, humbleness. Nice to practice Sachin's straight drive during shadow practice or socks method.
Rahul: Shadow practice , especially the weight on the cover drive due to more bent knees.
Ponting: Arguably the most successful captain and brilliant fielder, quick running between wickets. taking the field even after a big ton unlike other cricketing greats who lose stamina and prefer to rest while they have to field.
Jonty: Diving fielding technique, the way one has to use the toes position to gain fielding advantage.
Lara: Big knocks.
Kallis:A very reliable and consistent specialist batsman.

I will have to fill the MCA membership form yet again like all club crickets ( affiliated as well as registered ones )in Mumbai do. Great to be part of Mumbai cricketing system once again 8-)
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Re: Adi's Club Cricket Blog

Postby DeltaAlpha » Sun Oct 07, 2012 9:20 am

Sounds interesting, adi. Best wishes (and a bit of good luck) to you. A 10-year break sounds a long time!
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Re: Adi's Club Cricket Blog

Postby from_the_stands » Sun Oct 07, 2012 9:23 am

I like the new avatar. :thumb
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Re: Adi's Club Cricket Blog

Postby meninblue » Sun Oct 07, 2012 9:51 am

DeltaAlpha wrote:Sounds interesting, adi. Best wishes (and a bit of good luck) to you. A 10-year break sounds a long time!


Thanks :thumb I can see good and bad luck coming on the way. Hopefully, it will even out.

Yes, it's a huge break considering that cricket is a skill in which one can perform best in younger years and only when someone is playing cricket regularly. I still remember the basics of requesting the stance from umpy, while letting umpy know purposefully that you have taken the middle/leg stump stance to influence the LBW's. Some other tactics as well. Also, well embedded are the rules that one must take umpire and wicket keeper know that i am leaving the crease to tap the unwanted stone near the pitching zone or having word with the batting partner. The head , shoulder , elbow position. I will go through the MCA rule book to keep updated of the modified rules. Not being captain will allow me to having more time to adjust to rules that have changed. This time i will be choosing a much lighter bat than my previous one (BAS Vampire Kashmir willow). Maybe i will go for English willow in medium weight category because a lot of things have changed in regards to English willow bats. I need to get the footwork quick and check out what kind of initial shift movement, if any, will work for me better against the fast bowlers as the footwork hasn't been done for so long. It's going to be fun to go back at proper cricket, irrespective of how much success i gather there. Many international cricketers have often said "Enjoy the game once you are on field". I am jsut going to do that at this point of time.

Will be updating this thread as things will happen at club cricket.

from_the_stands wrote:I like the new avatar. :thumb


:thumb
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Re: Adi's Club Cricket Blog

Postby Gingerfinch » Sun Oct 07, 2012 8:12 pm

Best of luck adi and remember, enjoy!
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Re: Adi's Club Cricket Blog

Postby meninblue » Mon Oct 08, 2012 4:21 am

Thanks Doc :thumb
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Re: Adi's Club Cricket Blog

Postby andy » Tue Oct 09, 2012 5:43 pm

fantastic stuff adi and good luck,looking forward to hearing how you get on :salute
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Re: Adi's Club Cricket Blog

Postby meninblue » Wed Oct 10, 2012 12:12 pm

Thanks CF. :thumb
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Re: Adi's Club Cricket Blog

Postby meninblue » Wed Oct 17, 2012 6:20 am

Just confirmed with clubmates that the post monsoon nets are starting on "Dussehra". Wed, Oct 24th. I would be busy with the rituals at new home and some other related work. So i might be able to start nets on next Saturday at the earliest. Come on bowlers :box
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Re: Adi's Club Cricket Blog

Postby meninblue » Fri Nov 02, 2012 7:22 am

Hopefully, tomorrow i will be able to start the comeback at our club for the nets, after more than a decade. Today i will have to purchase the whites and the abdo guard. Will purchase the bat later on when i have enough time to visit 4 - 5 sports shops. The season will last until monsoon. It's going to be good time.
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Re: Adi's Club Cricket Blog

Postby meninblue » Fri Nov 02, 2012 1:22 pm

The dress code for nets is Black track pant or Black shorts and orange shirt with an Indian company's logo who is our sponsor. Change in nets dress code to what it was during school/college days.
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Re: Adi's Club Cricket Blog

Postby Gingerfinch » Fri Nov 02, 2012 1:26 pm

Dress code?

As long as we were not smoking, we were fine :)
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Re: Adi's Club Cricket Blog

Postby meninblue » Fri Nov 02, 2012 1:59 pm

Yup, i think we will have that for club matches as well.
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Re: Adi's Club Cricket Blog

Postby meninblue » Fri Nov 02, 2012 5:42 pm

I have got half of the cricket kit for tomorrows nets. As i am specialist batsman i have got Helmet, Batting spikes, abdo guard and supporter. One of my clubmate has a kit bag, pads and gloves. So i might only have to buy the bat now. Will get a bat only after checking various stores though.

Our dress code is white tracks and shirt both with sponsors logo for club matches as seen in pic. For the daily nets we have black tracks or black shorts and orange shirt both with sponsors logo.

The helmet weights have become so light now. My previous one was almost thrice heavy as this new one. Even the batting spikes are getting very light Previous ones were with metallic spikes, but now we also get rubber spikes.

My Kit
My_kit.jpg


Batting spikes
Batting_spikes.jpg


Helmet
Helmet_1.jpg
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Re: Adi's Club Cricket Blog

Postby meninblue » Sat Nov 03, 2012 5:17 am

Finally i have made the comeback. Been to the club at 6:30 A.M. today 8-)

Met some clubmates who still play with the club. I had been playing with them a decade back. Unlike me they didn't take a break. Good to see our previous coach on the ground today. He is now the secretary fo the club. Had a bit of chat with him before i left for the day. Will catch them for a longer chat very soon.

Warmup:
About 10 minutes of jogging. Then we had to run about 20 metres, stop and do 5 pushups. This run and pushups had to be done thrice. Then the fourth time, the pushups increased to 10. This was followed by various flexibility excercises for about 10 minutes. I was tired. I felt that doing about 1.5 hours of gym would have caused equal tiredness. 5 minutes fo rest help em recover for the
nets though.


Nets:

There were about 70 clubbies present today at the nets. We have 4 soil batting wickets at our club each covered with nets. The wickets had some grass and not they typical dry ones i was used to a decade back. I was given the ball and opted to bowl spin , because i don't want to stress my lower body much as i already do enough gymming. We were asked ot pick up the balls from the case. The apcers had picked up balls which had shine left on them. There were three remaining and i quickly spotted one old ball out of the remaining three, which was better shapped than other two. Also, the threading felt nice on my fingers for the grip and i decided it will be good to bowl spin with. The batsman took leg stump gurad from me and i started over the wicket. The first bowl went wide. Excused myself because i was playing proper cricket after about a decade. The second ball was a decent one on off stump as i consolidated the line. I settled to a good line and length and even i was surprised because i was a specialist batsman a decade back. tried a few things keeping an eye on what i am doing wrong. Identified consciously what things i have to work out on the very first day so thats a big takeaway from the first nets. In a nutshell i have realized i have astocl ball and i am getting it good enough considering its first nets. Was able to spin the ball a foot into the batsmen by changing grips on the bowl when required. Fired some good quicket ones, but the line shifted to leg stump and have to work on getting the quickies on middle if not off. Else i will gift 5 wides like Harby does. Also Will have to work a lot on the flight. I think it will take me a fe longer sessions at nets to sort those two things. Once i do it, i will work on the doosra. While markign the run up i stumbled and twisted the ankle. Coach spotted it and hold the feet to give some flexibility and ease the pain. Walked a bit and then went for fielding session.

I have to admit that i am now not the fielder i used to be. Maybe i am judging too early in first nets but thats what the fielding was. For the first time if felt, Munaf Patel fields better than me. Dropped 70% of the high catches as i failed to judge the balls and ended up being a feet or two away. Realized that and started to get myself close to the ball and i caught a few. Obe hit the finger tips , some bounced out of the palms out of which i managed to catch only one on second attempt. Yucks, i can't beleive that. I am supposed to be the best fielder but as they say when you are out of practice for years it affects performance a lot. The twisted ankle to meant i was cautious and will certainly have to field better. i can understand a batsman failing because a bowler is bowling excellent stuff or the bowler failing because the batsman is in awesom form. However, there are no excuses for fielder IMO. a fielder can drop the one off catch but there shouldn't be any bad form in fielding. I hope once i get the feeling of the hard ball well , i will be able to gather the catches nicely. I am sure judging the distance and gettign sued to the hard ball again is what will sort these two issues in few fielding sessions. I also observed that since decade few things have not changed in how Indian clubbies approach fielding. A lot fo clubbies want to bat and bowl, but for fielding we were only 10 interested out of 70. It must be same across all voer India and i don't see India being asgood a fielding side as non subcontinental teams. The fielding is taken for granted and is done by some only during club matches.

Will get to bat probably next time and try to do basics that were previosuly thought to me. Then identify the wrong things and work upon it.

Injuries:
Twisted the ankle but it will recover as due to gymming the muscles are strong enough to recover that stress.
Finger tip injured while high catching. That will take a couple of days though and from experience the finger tips injury pops up easily on second time one take a wrong catch. So thats what i have to be cautious about.
Luckily i controlled my urge to dive this time because i have decided to understand the dynamics of the hard ball once again properly before making diving. So blood is still not lost but it will be on the clothes once i regain my fielding level again in couple of nets.
Runs, wickets and catches do not come easily, so injuries will happen and i will have to manage my fitness by practicing well and backing physical fitness by continuing gymming.

The nets happened for about 100 minutes. After the nets i submitted the admission form. Will get the MCA cards later on though Pretty satsified with the fitness and the gymming has helped me a lot. The muscles are able to bear the stress and the stamina is not that bad. However, need to improve the endurance for a game like cricket whcih involves running a lot whether you bat or field unlike gymming. The fitness aspect of gymming and cricket are bit different. or maybe they are same but its just because its first nets i might not be as fit at cricket as i am at the gymming thing.

Overall a okay first nets session on comeback. It's a awesome feeling to be playing proper cricket again. Cricket knew i would come back to it after i had ditched it half way. I am back to my love. :joydance
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T20 Franchisee FL's - 7, T20i Cup FL's- 1, T20 FL's- 5 , 50 Overs Domestic FL's - 1, 40 Overs Domestic FL's- 1
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