Subhash Rajta
Tribune News Service
shimla, January 1
QUEST for the title, and the title is there,” screamed Anuj Pal Das, pointing at the Vijay Hazare Trophy that his team had won, beating fancied Tamil Nadu a while back. Standing in a huddle, with the trophy placed in the centre, the coach had barely yelled out the war cry when the formation broke abruptly and Jaipur’s SMS Stadium reverberated with joyous shrieks and melodious nati. Himachal had won their first national cricket title in 36 years, and the team and the coaching staff seemed determined to make the celebrations worth the long wait.
The coach’s war cry made one thing clear — the victory was not accidental, the team was actually on a “quest for the title” throughout the tournament. For a team from Himachal, considered minnows in domestic cricket for a reason, thinking that it could go past powerhouses like Delhi, Mumbai, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, etc, to win the tournament was quite audacious, if not totally outlandish. More so when the team had just one player, in skipper Rishi Dhawan, with a very brief India experience, no one in the active IPL fold, and no big name in the coaching chair.
“In the preparatory camp ahead of the tournament, we coined ‘quest for the title’ slogan. We had gone long enough without a title, and we desperately wanted to end this drought,” said Das, the state’s homegrown Level 3 coach. Well, it’s one thing to coin a slogan or a war cry, and quite another to actually believe in it. “The boys were next to none in terms of talent and skills, the trick was just to make them believe it. As a coach, I have worked with other teams for four years, have seen players at NCA and in IPL. So when I told them they were second to none, they knew I wasn’t bluffing them,” said Das. “And given that I have worked with most of these boys during their age group cricket, they trusted my word even more and played like champions, without getting overawed by the reputation of any player or team.”
Self-belief was probably the only missing piece of the jigsaw for Himachal. Thanks to Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA), the players already had the required infrastructure, qualified support staff, playing and training opportunities, etc.
“The title is the culmination of the efforts made by the association in providing the infrastructure, trained and quality support staff, enough playing opportunities and exposure to the players over the last one and a half decade,” said Shakti Singh, a former Himachal all-rounder. In the late 1980s and 1990s, when he playing, the state did not have even a proper turf wicket, let alone stadiums.
“It all changed when Anurag Thakur took over the reins of the association around 2000. He came with a grand vision for the sport in the state. Under his command, things changed pretty fast. The first big statement was the world-class Dharamsala stadium,” said Das.
A beautiful stadium like Dharamsala’s can get you the attention of the entire cricketing world, but it can’t change things much at the grassroots level. To HPCA’s credit, the deluge of appreciation did not stop it from building the required infrastructure at other places across the state. Post Dharamsala, well-equipped stadiums at Naduan and Bilaspur came up. The masterstroke, though, was the idea to open cricket sub-centres in all tehsils of the state.
“The plan is to have around 80 such sub-centres. At the moment, 44 are functional in various parts of the state,” said Ajay Mannu, a former Himachal skipper and now a selector with HPCA. “Thousands of children train at the facilities with proper infrastructure and good coaches. In return, the association’s talent pool is getting bigger by the day.”
Alongside raising physical infrastructure, HPCA invested in the building of trained and qualified human resources. “From having just one physio at one time, we now have a separate physio for each team, both men and women. The situation is more or less the same with coaches, trainers, curators, etc., now,” said Manu. “And of course, there’s no dearth of exposure trips. Our teams in all age groups keep visiting Mumbai, Kolkata and other places. When they play with big teams and players, they don’t get overawed when they go against them in big matches,” said the former skipper.
Incidentally, many players from the title winning team started their age group cricket when things started changing for the better for Himachal cricket, about one-and-a-half decade ago. They are a product of the cricketing system that is comparable to the best in the country. No wonder, they are the ones to give Himachal its first ever national title. “There was a time when we came just to participate. With the increase in facilities, the confidence has grown. Players coming up are now confident and ready to take on the best,” said skipper Rishi Dhawan.
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