Cricket Kudos

Uttar Pradesh deserves all the kudos for emerging as the Ranji champions for the first time. They were without the services of their ace medium-pacer Rudra Pratap Singh and still they managed to defend their not-so-big first innings total of 387 runs. Team India players like Mohammad Kaif and Suresh Raina were expected to play well, but especially heartening was the first innings bowling of young spinner Piyush Chawla, who has been sending a chill down the backbone of opposition batting orders on a consistent basis after foxing Sachin Tendulkar in the Challengers’ Trophy 2005. In fact, it is heartening that teams like Bengal, Baroda, Orissa, Railways, Uttar Pradesh, which have traditionally not been among the top-notch Indian domestic teams, have been making more than a mark in the national level. Abhishek Jhunjhunwala of the defeated finalist Bengal has shown the credentials to perform with élan within the next few seasons. This decentralization of the game in the country is a good index of the spreading popularity of the game at the micro levels. This should go on to decrease the apparent administrative malfunction of the Board for Control of Cricket in India (BCCI).