The Ranji Trophy champion basked in glory as the Karnataka State Cricket Association hosted a felicitation, high on emotion, at the Chinnaswamy Stadium premises here on Friday afternoon. R. Vinay Kumar’s men were a happy bunch as they laughed, clicked pictures, paid their respects to former cricketers and mingled with the KSCA members and media alike.
Arriving straight from the airport and greeted with the bursting of crackers and a live-band striking enthusiastically on drums, the Karnataka team witnessed two standing ovations and received unabated praise from the vast gathering. After the KSCA president Ashok Anand congratulated the squad, secretary Brijesh Patel raised the stakes when he said: “We are proud of you boys and importantly this team has performed well both on and off the field. Like previous Karnataka squads, these boys too have been extremely disciplined and their behaviour off the field has been good. Mumbai has won the Ranji 18 times in a row, it is time Karnataka beats that record.”
Icing on the cakeA deeply-satisfied Vinay spoke about the closeness within the ranks and the manner in which all players contributed. “We took it one day at a time, one match at a time. Sometimes if you focus too much on the goal, then it becomes difficult so we stayed in the present. At the start of the season I had said that if we play even at 80 per cent of our ability, we should win the Ranji and we have proved that. Even in the final when we were four-down, we were still confident that we will win; all we thought was that we should score 400, 500 and get ahead. It is an honour to lead this special group of cricketers and at different points, everyone chipped in. Winning the Ranji once is huge but to win it again is the icing on the cake. I also thank our coaches J. Arunkumar and Mansur Ali Khan, who were like our friends and helped us a lot,” Vinay said.
The KSCA honoured all the players and support staff with a ‘Mysore Peta’ (traditional head-gear) and a shawl. Former cricketers like G.R. Viswanath, B.S. Chandrasekhar and Sadanand Viswanath were present and they were all thrilled with the way the team performed. “This is a fantastic achievement,” said Chandrasekhar.
Later, as Karun Nair, who scored 328 in the final moved around the hall, he drew attention just like other heroes — Robin Uthappa, K.L. Rahul, Abhimanyu Mithun, S. Arvind, C.M. Gautam and Shreyas Gopal. Asked about his lukewarm show leading to the final and the eventual mammoth knock, Nair said: “Yes I didn’t score much in the games before the final but I knew I was batting well so there were no nerves as such.”
His quiet confidence was an all-embracing trait that the entire Karnataka outfit shared and it is no wonder that retaining the Ranji Trophy proved rather easy.
