After a week that cast the shadow of death upon our utopian-construct called sport, life will certainly go on. Phil Hughes’s demise has wrung every ounce of grief from the sporting fraternity, but it is also time for cricket to echo across Indian venues as far flung as Guwahati and Vadodara, Wayanad and Patiala, to name a few.
Yes, the Ranji Trophy is upon us and while the half-wiped tear and the sombre tweets about Hughes linger, the business of evolution and growth will continue to inspire individuals and teams in India’s premier domestic tournament.
If Hughes’s departure was the final farewell, another exit purely at a cricketing base occurred when Virender Sehwag, Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh and Gautam Gambhir failed to find a berth among the Indian probables for the World Cup.
If the golden generation’s last flag-bearer Sachin Tendulkar bowed out in 2013, the intermediate generation seems to have followed suit quickly.
The five will still play at the first-class level, but their demotion from national colours will open up more avenues at the highest stage for the many who ply their wares in the Ranji Trophy. If last season’s prolific Karnataka opener K.L. Rahul could force his way into the Indian team touring Australia, others can find a similar path.
Ominous note Meanwhile, defending champion Karnataka has struck an ominous note by retaining the Vijay Hazare Trophy for one-dayers.
R. Vinay Kumar’s men are keen to excel, but will have to be at their best right from the first match against Tamil Nadu here from Sunday.
Group A, that features the two teams, also has Mumbai among others and should throw up some riveting clashes. Group B, meanwhile, will hinge on the Delhi-Punjab-Rajasthan axis, but other squads cannot be discounted as one of them — Maharashtra — qualified from Group C last season and went all the way to the final!
Maharashtra’s leap and Jammu & Kashmir’s endearing run into the top tier of Indian cricket were some of the stunning highlights of 2013-14.
Their progress also offers many lessons to teams that are struggling, for instance Hyderabad, once a leading outfit but now floating in Group C.
For veterans like Sehwag and hopefuls like Manish Pandey, the imminent set of matches will offer clues to the way ahead.
The Tests between India and Australia and later the World Cup, will overlap with the Ranji schedule that runs from December 7 to March 12, 2015, but for domestic cricketers desperate to make an impression in whites, there is no bigger stage than the Ranji Trophy.
The riches and celebrity-status of the summer’s Indian Premier League can wait!
The groupings:
Group A: Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Mumbai, Bengal, Jammu & Kashmir, Railways, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Baroda.
Group B: Delhi, Punjab, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Odisha, Haryana, Gujarat, Saurashtra and Vidarbha.
Group C: Hyderabad, Andhra, Kerala, Goa, Services, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Assam and Tripura.
