Overview
The satisfying thwack of leather meeting willow can be heard long before one steps into the Med-C Grounds – a sure sign that Cricket Team practice sessions are in full swing. The daily training routine on weekdays is from four till dusk with the practice matches scheduled on the weekends.
The team doesn’t have a professional trainer: coaching duties are split amongst the senior members of the team. The challenge is further compounded by the lack of practice pitches, with the cement pitches used in the past having made way for a storehouse. Players are forced to utilize the three central pitches. In addition to exacerbating the already challenging task of maintaining them for the duration of BOSM this also prevents them from training in the week leading up to the competition.
The Institute has decided to take heed these concerns and chip in with the Cricket Team being provided a ground maintenance staff. The lack of coaches is also not troubling the team too much as they prefer the current system; they believe that the lack of hierarchy created leads to a better team spirit.
Past Performance
The past few years have seen the team perform splendidly, winning gold for the past two years and a silver before that. The main sources of the BITS’s cricket competition are the DU colleges- SRM Delhi, Sri Venkateswara College and DTU, with IIT-Delhi not being a regular feature at BOSM. The team has also gone to IIT-D and DTU in the recent past with the former landing them a silver medal and the latter resulting in a first round exit.
Recruitments
Cricket is one of the few sports on campus which has an open trial period i.e. they take recruits from all batches and not merely first years. The flexibility while recruiting doesn’t necessarily translate into an easy spot in the team as trials can go on for over a month with the final team not being fixed up until the weeks leading up to BOSM.
The increased intake on campus has also meant a sharp rise in the number of students turning up for trials, 95 in total, further extending the already lengthy selection period. It’s not just an increase of quantity though, there is considerable talent in this new batch and hopefully the coming years will see this talent bear fruit.
Captain’s Interview
Sri Harsha, the captain of the BITS Pilani Cricket Team, was sighted laid back in a chair with one of his legs heavily bandaged. He immediately laughed off any concerns of serious injury though, citing a minor sprain as the reason for all the gauze. He was confident that he would not only be a part of the BOSM squad but also resume training in a few days. This comes as a huge relief to the cricket fraternity on campus as Sri Harsha has been one of lynchpins of the Cricket Team for three years now.
Sri Harsha picked up the sport in 7th grade and did spectacularly well throughout his childhood, going on to represent his State and Zone at both the under-16 and under-19 levels.
Cricket has been more than just a sport for him in BITS, as he describes the cricket team as ‘the best thing that happened to me on campus’. Despite his evident passion and undeniable skill as a cricketer, he doesn’t plan to play professionally. He states this lack of desire to play further as one of the perks of college level cricket, “There is no high level after this. There is no selfishness. It’s all for the team.”
This attitude of putting his team ahead has kept him in good stead both last semester when there were several seniors playing under him and even now when he is in charge of grooming enthusiastic, albeit inexperienced, youngsters. If Sri Harsha has any complaints with regards to cricket it is the dismal attendance for matches in BOSM, but he’s quietly optimistic that crowd support will change for the better this year.