The historic Ranji Trophy crown of Jammu & Kashmir on Saturday is rightly heralded as the biggest sporting fairytale of Indian sport. And yet, the journey of Paras Dogra and his men had been anything but a fairytale – it’s more a saga of grit, resilience against odds and apathy for decades.
The stars finally aligned for them in the quieter surroundings of Hubballi, more than 400 kms drive from Bengaluru, and how. When Parvez Rasool, the first cricketer from the new union territory to represent India, told us on the eve of the final that he fancied their chances against the eight time champions Karnataka – one thought it was more optimism at work than anything else.
A look at man-for-man comparison between the two teams looked so mismatched as the Karnataka batting line-up, which boasted of names like KL Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, skipper Devdutt Padikkal and Karun Nair had just rustled up more than 700 runs in the semi-finals against Uttarakhand. J & K, on the other hand, banked ever so heavily on the express Aqib Nabi to bring them back into the game against Bengal in the other semi-final.
The way things panned out were completely different as it turned out to be more a statement of defiance against the cricketing hierarchy. The J & K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah had been already in Karnataka to be a part of the prize distribution ceremony – while it’s also a remarkable coincidence that the quintessential underdogs have laid their hands on the legacy trophy in the very first year when domestic stalwart Mithun Manhas has taken over the reins as the BCCI president.
Better known as the former Delhi captain under whom Virat Kohli made his first class debut, Manhas played for a full season in 2015-16 as the J & K mentor and player before retiring from in 2017. The overjoyed players lifted Manhas on their shoulders as part of their celebrations and there would be no dearth of claimants for credit of such a success story – but the fact remains it needed a combination of sheer talent, self belief and patience to walk the last mile in a demanding and long drawn out format like the Ranji Trophy.
How does one define the success of J & K in their season to remember? It’s perhaps unavoidable that Aqib Nabi, the 29-year-old tearaway who became only the third bowler to claim 60 wickets in a single Ranji season, will walk away with a lot of limelight on him – with former Indian cricketers wanting him to be fast tracked to the Indian team rather pass through the India ‘A’ routine.
Ranji final: Underdogs to trailblazers, J&K warriors inspire new era in Indian cricketThe real spirit of the team, however, lay in the manner unheralded names like Shubham Pundir, Qamran Iqbal and of course the talented allrounder Abdul Samad laid the foundation for the team’s battle against a quality attack on a surface where first innings was destined to play the key role. And yes, no ode to this J & K side can be complete without a mention of the role skipper Paras Dogra and chief coach Ajay Sharma played in the team’s rise to the summit.
The 42-year-old Dogra may not be exactly your image of a Captain Courageous, but he fitted the bill to be the leader of a side like this after his long stints with Himachal Pradesh and Puducherry. Only the second batter after Wasim Jaffer to compile more than 10,000 runs in Ranji history, Dogra looked ungainly against the Karnataka pace attack led by a nippy Prasiddh Krishna – but knew how important his presence was in cobbling together a substantial first innings total.
Sharma's redemption
The contribution of Ajay Sharma, the hardened former India allrounder, in their dugout for the past four years had also played it’s part. It’s been a part of the J & K cricket’s folklore as to how the legendary Bishan Singh Bedi had invested his time and soul in their cricket from 2011 or the involvement shown by Irfan Pathan during his stay as mentor.
However, for Sharma – whose name got embroiled in the match-fixing episode which engulfed Indian cricket in the late ‘90s along with big names like Mohammed Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja – it’s been possibly an hour of redemption. After being cleared by Delhi court of all charges in 2014, the 61-year-old Sharma took a fresh guard in coaching in various capacities with the National Cricket Academy (NCA), Delhi team and finally J & K.
The Ranji title as coach will surely be a fitting tribute to his status as a domestic stalwart who knows what it takes to succeed in marathon tournaments. As for J & K, the demands for the cricketers will be simple – a place under the sun and a few more stadia than only two which they had been managing with for more than 50 years!
