A cricketing dream in Singapore

Cricket in Singapore

I dedicate this blog to my dearest friend Bhanu, with whom I have had several orgasmic discussions on various facets of cricket.

"How do you differentiate between the 2 teams when all of you are wearing whites? "

This was the common question posed by my Singaporean friends. It never ceased to amuse me. To me it was so easy, one team was batting and another fielding... what is so difficult to differentiate in that? However, these were an entirely different breed of people who grew up watching football and basketball where the players of both the teams would be playing throughout the entire match. And yes, team jerseys and even their numbers were important. Beckham without his #7 and Maradona without his #10 would not be as good, they would reckon !

The Initiation  :

My tryst with cricket in Singapore started in April 1996 when tri-nation tournament (Singer Cup)  between India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka was organised in the island city. I knew a few people in Singapore Indian Association - SIA (The Indian cricket club in Singapore) and was roped in as a volunteer on the ground. Instantly, more than 100 strangers became my instant friends for free tickets and backdoor entries.

When I first landed in Singapore, I was completely alone and hardly knew anyone. I used to saunter around a nearby cricket ground near my house on the lazy weekends and watch the matches. To be honest, and a matter of no surprise, the quality of cricket was not as good as what we used watch our international teams on TV but you could compare them with the matches at Shivaji Park or a Azad Maidan in Mumbai. The only and the stark difference was that only one match was played in one ground and the outfield was deliciously green and neatly manicured. (In contrast in Mumbai, the grounds were a dust bowl, full of pebbles and stones and the only sign of grass was what the hutment dwellers used to smoke at the adjoining pavements). I used to fondly remember my school friend Vikas who had travelled to Singapore to play a few matches during my school days (about 20 years ago !!!). Most of the times, I used to eagerly count the number of players and would hope that they would rope me in if they were a player short. During one such match, I noticed that a team was 2 players short and I mustered enough courage to walk up to them and ask them if I could play. They said I need to be registered and blah blah but more importantly I need a kit .. atleast a pair of white uniform and white shoes. Later that evening I checked a nearby mall and it would cost me more than S$ 200. Idea shelved and postponed for a few years later.

The Singer Cup :

The edition started off on a sour note as the first game between SL & Pak was lost due to rains. We all volunteers worked relentlessly through the day but there was no chance since the rain kept pouring down. Luckily, during those days, they used to have a reserve day for the washouts & we worked the whole night too so that we could manage a game the next day. Next day, Jayasurya, more than made up for the previous days disappointment. He was in his supreme elements. Being a small ground, most of his sixes were landing on the road outside of the stadium. He hit the then fastest century off just 48 balls and the entertainment was of the highest order. Remember that this was much before the advent of T20 and such power hitting was rare and everything seems like a highlight package. ( Trivia : This record was  later bettered by Afridi and Corey Anderson. ABDV now holds it with 31 balls.)

Later, India won against SL in a low scoring encounter under overcast conditions but lost to Pak even though Sachin had scored a century in yet another rain affected encounter the next day. I was blessed to be on the ground where Sachin scored a century (retrieving the balls from the boundary) and those in the stands just could not have it enough.

Most left dejected after the loss as India did not qualify for the finals due to the run rate scenario. I also made myself unavailable as a volunteer for the final between SL & Pak.

Footnote : Pakistan won the Singer Cup v/s SL

The start of a dream ! :

I started playing cricket in Singapore only in 1998 though sporadically. I stumbled upon a few friends and a chain of like minded people started to come together as a group. Singapore is really a fun place to be in. Not just for fun but the kind of importance that they give for overall development including sports, is incredible. They have parks, basketball courts, small football rinks, bicycle tracks etc for any common public to use, at a walkable distance. I sorely miss these facilities in Mumbai. My friend Vikas who is still an active cricketer in Mumbai will disagree.

We started by playing tennis ball cricket on a basket ball court. Understandably, the space was a constraint as the court was between 2 buildings and we had those regular complaints from the households about the broken window panes and what not. So we went back to the rules of gully cricket of 1st floor per laga toh out and such rules which all of us in Mumbai and Delhi thrive on. One of our team mates stumbled upon a lush green park on the Marina beach bay. Marina Beach Bay then became our playground for the rest of the tennis ball cricketing journey.

This was also a time when a lot of Indian software engineers started to trudge along to US, Singapore etc to fix the Y2K issues. Earlier, the Indian population was limited and all those who were Indians became your friends and connected in some manner or the other. By '99 the scenario had changed. Indians had migrated by 1000s and more. Our bunch of gully cricket guys started mixing up with Indians from CSFB (Credit Suisse) and JPMC (JP Morgan) and the likes.

Cricket thrived at the Marina Bay Beach ground and we used to have numerous matches. Though tennis ball, it was quite competitive and each match used to be fiercely contested. What started off as numerous teams from various geographic areas of Singapore & offices, became a huge cricketing fraternity. It was at that time, one of my friends who used to play for the Singapore National team (Sandeep Seth) asked me to try my luck at the trials at the Singapore Indian Association (SIA), a local club which played various sports at the club level in Singapore.

Singapore Cricket Association (SCA) is the official governing body for all official cricket in Singapore, much like the BCCI in India. Affiliated to the SCA were representative clubs of various countries which were established much before the independence of Singapore in 1965, while Singapore was still under the British rule. Amongst the leading clubs were ANZA (Australia & New Zealand), Ceylon Sports Club (CSC), Pakistan Cricket Association, British Club, Singapore Indian Association (SIA) to name a few. SCA had by that time in 2000, in order to encourage the younger generation had enlisted the Universities like NTU & NUS. Typically, the players from these universities were all 18 to 21 year olds budding with energy and enthusiasm and predominantly from India. While the above mentioned “national” clubs had an average age of 35 and some even pushing 50, matching these university teams in terms of energy and stamina was a no contest but we made that up with experience, talent & re-kindled sense of enthusiasm of the lost youth. SCA at that time had 3 divisions and about 10 clubs. These 10 clubs had 2 or 3 teams each and played in various divisions, obviously division 1 being the best while division 3 was for entry level. Today SCA boasts of 100 teams across 6 divisions and steadily climbing the ICC rankings.

Bhanu and I were selected for the cricket team of the Indian Association. Getting into the hallowed hallways and then to the ground as a sporting member of an esteemed club deeply rooted in tradition since 1923 was a highlight of my life then. Years later, when I came back to India, I always bemused that since this club was formed almost 25 years before India’s Independence, were there any “teen guna lagan” kind of matches in those times ? :-)

Playing for IA was a matter of pride. Their uniform remained white but the emblem on the T-shirt, track pants and the hat was a thing that you could show off. Not to mention, I was saved in investing for the uniform. Bhanu & I played for IA for 2 seasons purely for the passion of the game but somehow we lacked the excitement of playing the sport. Typically, we would get a call on Thu or Fri night and be asked to turn up at the ground on a Sat and / or Sun morning at 7 am, which also meant that after our drinking binge on the weekend we would saunter our way to the ground at 6:45 am and a cold shower later, be ready to play for the next 4 hours under the hot blazing sun. Age being on our side, we managed to perform much better than the others and won quite a few games for the team. However, like I said, the excitement, the buzz was missing. We would just show up for the games, not knowing which division we are playing in, who our opponents were and what our role was supposed to be. Most of the times, our captains themselves did now know what we were good at. So it was a team that I would call as dhar pakad XI (a hastily arranged group of 11 people) who were asked to assemble at a given time & place and make a charade of playing a match just for the heck of it. This was against my principle of playing any sport. If I play, then I would want to play to the best of my ability and would expect the rest of the team to do so too. Nevertheless, even though  me, Bhanu and a few others echoed the same sentiment, we played for 2 seasons. (2001 – 2002)

(Yr 2003) :  It was some night of drink binging that these like minded individuals sounded the idea of forming our own club ! Now that was an absurd idea to say the least but that would never deter a group of high spirited people high on life amongst other things. Various theories and ideas were explored and the biggest deterrent was that to form a club we needed atleast 9 people and be a registered society. For those who are well versed with the kind of discussions a group bent on binge drinking can have, we scaled the Everest and back. Slept the night out and as usual all was forgotten and life moved on when we woke up the next day. Imagine to my surprise, that the following weekend, my namesake Navin Kamat announced that he has gone ahead and registered the club ! 7 of us & other 2 who could hardly play cricket were the pall bearers so to say. One of us was a lawyer by profession and agreed to do the legal proceedings to register us as a society !!! So what started as an innocuous discussion over a few (?) beers became a reality and a passion for us that remains with me even after 14 years ! 

Name of the club : MARINA CRICKET CLUB

That’s where we had all come together from various teams playing tennis ball cricket, had bonded and moved along over the last 5 years or so and hence it felt very appropriate to have that name. The whole journey at Marina left an imprint on me, both good as well as bad, for the rest of my life.

So here we were 7 decently playing cricketers & 2 self confessed couch champions, we were struggling to make a playing 11 and the 2003 season to start in a few weeks. We spread the word around in the Indian fraternity and slowly our squad grew. As the season progressed, we started winning more games and the 2 couch champions became our staunch supporters but could not find a place in the playing XI. Despite the obvious personal setback inspite of being the core founding members of the club, they dedicatedly packed the kit bags, did the score boards, carried drinks and all that a 12^th man would do and more. What that meant is that though some of the on-field heroics won us the matches, these behind the scenes heroes won the respect of the club. This kind a professional season (and that what is truly was) was a first kind of an experience for us. Lush green grounds, neutral umpires, neutral scorers, fixtures and results posted on the website, alongwith the player batting and bowling averages and much more. It was an unique experience to be playing in such a setup. The season progressed for us much more better than what we had anticipated and we were on a roll esp. at the fag end of the tournament. Eventually in the 1^st year itself, what later came to be known as Marina 1 (M1), came runners-up in Division 3. A proud moment indeed.  

We had defeated the legendary and well established “proper” clubs whereas we were self funded right from the kits to the ground fees.

The decision now came to choose if M1 should continue in Div 3 or move up to Div 2. After much deliberations, the core members of the club (moi included) decided that we should now field another team Marina 2 (M2) in Division 3 and play fun cricket while M1 will move up to Div 2 and play some serious cricket with the talented bunch that had joined the club recently, while the rest of us mundane but enthusiastic bunch including the couch champions would play for M2 in Div 3. Which was fine until they made me the Captain of M2 ! Playing carefree and doing what your captain tells you to do & try and do it well, is one thing but to lead a bunch of extremely over-enthusiastic bunch of semi talented guys is a whole different ball game. It started from building a team right from the scratch. Luckily for M2, M1 had done well the previous season and also our team spirit & ethos was doing the rounds in the circuit. Hence it was bit easier to get new recruits and we started the new season with a new earnest.

I inculcated a set of discipline within the M2 team, which was a team bonding meeting on every Wednesday, which actually was a beer guzzling session & a training on Thursday evening under lights which also ended up in a beer session. Games primarily used to be on Saturday early morning. Games were of 35 overs a side and for people who grew up playing maximum of 10 over a side in a tennis ball game, it was way beyond any stretch of stamina for most especially in the searing humid energy sapping heat, but the enthusiasm and the pleasure of the game more than made up for it. Sometimes, it was quite the opposite and it used to rain all day or in between and the games would be curtailed or washout, which used to be a real dampner.

What worked for M2 was the camaraderie within the team and the knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of each other and each one fed of the success of his team mate. M2 had a terrific season in 2004 and each match is a vivid memory though its more than 13 years ago. To recount each one of those will turn this blog into a book, so I will attempt to pick up some of the top ones that are really worth sharing.

1. We were playing a very hard fought game against ANZA with a lot of sledging from both the sides. While the Indian international team was not the kind to give back in sledging in those days, this ANZA club team was outdoing their international counter-parts. We on our part, did not emulate our national side and gave it back with bitter vigour. So much so that I remember Bhanu running with a stump behind Alan Wilkins (the now commentator and anchor on most Star Sports broadcasts) and Wilkins running all around the ground trying to save himself ! It was a hilarious sight. We were all MC & BC during and even after the match we were fuming even though we had won the match and imagine to our surprise when their captain walked over to us with 2 crates of chilled beer and then called us over to join them. That’s when we learnt to leave the aggression on field and off field be the friends that you could be.
2. We were playing the British Club on a Sat morn. The previous day was British National Day (23^rd April) and most of their team were partying through the night and only 4 players from their team turned up for the match the next day at 7 am. The rest were apparently just trickling on their way to the ground or yet to wake up ! According to the rules, at the time of the toss atleast 7 players from a side have to be present on the field else the opposing captain can ask for a forfeit. I won the toss & in the “spirit of the game”, not only did I not ask for forfeit, I asked them to bat so that in the meanwhile their entire team would assemble. (Imagine them fielding with 4 fielders). Bottomline, we almost lost that game ! Till date, I debate on the line one can draw on the cliché’ of “spirit of the game” while one plays to win the game. We could have won the game without a ball being bowled but I guess the taste of a hard but fairly fought victory was sweeter. (but what if we had lost ??)
3. During Singapore National Day 6’s tournament (9^th August), we used to get to play against the likes of Dean Jones, Pat Symcox (& a few other such international retired cricketers). They used to represent the Star Sports team. Retired surely but having the same competitive spirit and definitely no dip in their talent or zest for the game. While M2 lost to this team in the semis, our premier team M1, was against them in the finals. One stunning catch running backwards from midon to longon and taking it with the back towards the ground, inches inside the boundary rope and another fielding effort etched in memory was when Bhanu threw the ball from long on to the other end at the wicket keeper and got Pat Symcox run out. Pat Symcox who can cover the 22 yards in just 4-5 steps ! Symcox did not even wait for the umpires decision, continued running to our dugout and said we are one of the best amateur teams that he has played against in his entire career. Coming from an international star, I treasure that compliment very close to my .heart
4. A tense semi-final M2 match v/s Ceylon Sports Club reminds me of 2 very funny incidences. We had some 17 more runs to get but were 8 wickets down. I was playing quite well at the other end & had plenty of overs to get it. Suhas was batting at the other end and I saw him taking a few body blows. I walked upto him and asked him what the matter was. It was quite overcast & it seems that his night vision is very blurred & he could sight the ball only at the last minute. He still had the courage to assure me that he will take the blows but won’t get out. What had made me laugh that he can’t see in gloomy light suddenly changed to a new found respect for him & for the ethos of our team. And even as I was whittling down the score, at the far end I saw Saha doing some shadow practice and I was wondering where he was finding the shadows in the gloomy evening. Tense as it was, I could not help laughing at that sight too.
5. 
   
   

   One of the matches that I distinctly recall and deserves a special mention is our game against Pakistan Cricket Association. Though it was not a strong opposition but any game against Pakistan will always evoke strong emotions irrespective of the fact that even international sportsmen term it as "just another game." One of my team player was Conrad, popularly known as Connie. He was a self confessed football fanatic who had hardly played any cricket even in tennis ball leave alone with the hard red cherry. On that day, he insisted that he open the batting as he had to really trash the daylights out of the Pak team and it has been his dream to bash Pak in any field whatsoever. As a captain, I was reluctant, as it put all my plans and strategies for a toss. But such was his unwavering determination, that I let him have a go. In the next 15 balls, he hit 8 sixes, all of which were more than 80 mtrs long and into a deep ravine and all the balls were lost. I literally had to stand at the edge of the ravine & gesture him  not to hit any more as there were no more balls left to play with. A feat never heard of before and never repeated till date ! Needless to say, we won more easily than a walkover !
6. M2 won the championship of division 3 and did one better than what our big brother had done a year before !!!

Trivia : I was not a playing member at that time but just a honorary member of the Marina club but was a spectator in one of the T20 tournaments in 2008 where one of my teammates smashed an astounding 219 of just 56 balls which included 18 sixes and 23 fours !!! The team made 368 – 3 in the allotted 20 overs. One of the most brutal batting assault I have ever seen. Guess who the opponent was ? Singapore Pakistan Association ! That just sums it up all !

http://dhaka-pic.blogspot,in/2008/05/highest-individual-run-in-twenty20-t20.html?m=1

FACT : I was / still am, so much in love with this club MARINA, that I named my daughter KAREENA

 Marina now has 3 teams across Div 2,3 and 4 with 75 members and 50 active players. A legacy started in 2003 continues to prosper and thrive playing a sport the way it should be played ! 

Many more tales and factoids saved for a later day ! Ta da !