Episode 31

Mar 07 2007

The search for a captain

Karan Joshi and Praveeth Kumar sat down to talk about the big match they had played against a star-studded Reebok XI. Though Karan was the top scorer for the Cricket Star XI, he came in for criticism because of his captaincy.

But Karan maintained that it was a team decision—the team had collectively decided to mix the overs up. When asked why Amiteshwar, who has been a successful wicket-taker thus far was not given more than an over to bowl, Karan said the decision to use the fast bowlers was taken collectively according to the opposition.

Praveeth could not contain his excitement at the prospect of getting closer to his dreams. The Man of the Match title justified his presence in the competition. When asked what he intended to use the money for, Praveeth said he would use it to help his father set up a small business and, thereby, add to his family’s finances.

Kadir Patel, however, did not share Praveeth’s luck. Despite taking the wicket of Robin Uthappa and displaying some spectacular fielding, Kadir was voted out for his batting. Sanjay Manjrekar felt Kadir was too nervous in his approach to the batting crease. Though Kadir felt bad, he is not one to give up easily.

Rahil Sheikh knew that his fielding and fitness were below desirable levels. While Manjrekar felt it was unfair that Rahil was unanimously voted out for one bad performance, Rahil said he was just as keen to improve on his weaknesses and show that they could be just as good as the rest of the boys.

The question of who would captain the next game took some time to resolve. Many wanted Abbas, while S Prabhu was also a popular choice. But only Karan Joshi seemed to tower over his competition because of his sheer ability to get runs while shouldering the burden of captaincy. Dinesh Salunkhe seemed to struggle with fitness much to the aggravation of the coach, and the fact that he is yet to relive his blitzkrieg from the first game, the odds seem against nominating him for captain.