It was bright Sunday afternoon when something that has not been achieved in a long time came to fruition. On July 02, 2006, Team India won a meaningful away series, when it beat West Indies by 44 runs at Sabina Park, Jamaica. It has been coming for a long time. The 1997 collapse at Barbados while chasing 120 runs for a momentus victory immediately comes to mind. A victory at Sydney in January 2004 would have shut the Aussies up for good, but for valiant knocks by Tugga and Katich. Lack of match winning bowlers in overseas conditions and top order batsmen who had the stomach for a fight were put forth as reasons for India's poor showing in alien conditions. In the last 4 years with Dravid reaching the peak of his batting prowess coupled with Sehwag's agression, and the infusion of young fast bowlers -- add to it the old war horses, Sachin and Anil, it seemed like it was just a matter of time before India broke through. However, it wasn't to be.
Another thing happened on that summer afternoon as well. Penn State Cricket Club, after laboring through three years of growing pains, finally won its division outright in its fourth year of existence. By beating Nova CC by 45 runs in a rain-shortened match, PSCC collected a total of 11 points won the WMCB Main-League South Money-Matter trophy and qualified for the semifinals outright. Some of the club members from 2003 when the club came into being in its current avatar, were there to see their efforts come to fruition, including Gautam, Rohan, Shiv, Ramesh, Vivek and yours truly. Last year due to circumstances beyond our control, the trophy slipped away from us. Sure - we had the ball bounce our way this season, but it was a good team effort that made this happen. Words are not enough to describe the enthusiasm and efforts of all the members who have represented before and continue to do so. It has been the pure passion of the members for the game of cricket has kept the club going for the last four years and I sincerely hope it would continue to be so.
Monday, July 10, 2006
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3 comments:
Totti -- With your new enthusiasm for playing "real" cricket, you should step up to the leadership role, buddy! Whadya say?
Yo!! Cartman, congrats dude!! How come i don't see the two workhorses mentioned here? Charan and matter? surely they would have mattered, atleast a little ? :p. But, ofcourse, if not for the enthu and effort of you guys there wouldn't be a club :)
Totti --- Charan (or "Ron" as he is known these days) and Matter ("Kris McKay") get their due accolades all the time, especially at our club's blog, psucric.blogspot.com I think in this particular post, i wanted to acknowledge the ones that have been through the worst of times in 2002-03, which was before charan came to PSU.
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