It’s not everyday that a cricketer walks onto his home venue for a domestic match with a stand already named after him. The rarity happened at the Kotla on Thursday, 30 January, when Virat Kohli stepped in to play a Ranji fixture for Delhi after a gap of 13 years – and the free entry ensured there was a sizeable, noisy crowd at hand to make it an affair to remember.
Ever since it was confirmed that Kohli will be playing the last league game for Delhi, who are now left with no chance of moving to the knockout stages, excitement had been building in the capital as well as the Indian cricket media. The Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) had to open up three blocks at the last minute for the public while the official broadcasters drew up contingency plans for a rotational telecast of the matches.
Not surprisingly, there was chaos outside the gates though it was somewhat incongruous to hear chants of ‘RCB, RCB’ in reference to the star’s IPL franchise – perhaps a reflection of how the landscape of Indian cricket has changed ever since Kohli last played a Ranji match in his avatar as a rising batting star against UP.
‘’I am associated with Delhi cricket for more than three decades but I haven’t seen so many fans in a Ranji Trophy match,’’ DDCA secretary Ashok Sharma told PTI. ‘’It became more challenging as PM Narendra Modi’s cavalcade passed on the outside roads. We were instructed by the Delhi Police to open another stand for the fans,’’ the official said.
The build-up to the game was all about Kohli, though it was almost a compulsion on part of him and India captain Rohit Sharma – along with a number of other A listers of India cricket – to turn out in domestic cricket. The twin debacle in the Test series against New Zealand and Australia and their woeful personal form built a strong case for the ‘Big Two’ to play more of red ball cricket, though the next Test series ahead of them is only in England in June-July.
As Kohli’s day started at the second slips with Railways batting first, memories of another day came fleeting by with Mohammed Kaif – a key member of UP when the former played his last Ranji in Ghaziabad – going public with the batter’s weakness. ‘’Our match against Delhi in 2012 was the previous occasion when Virat Kohli played Ranji Trophy. He had the off stump weakness at that time as well. I can’t believe that the same weakness is still there,’’ said Kaif in his avatar as a TV pundit.
Interestingly, Kohli’s tryst with Ranji Trophy has marked a number of twists and turns in his storied career. It has become a part of Indian cricket’s folklore as to how in 2006, a 18-year-old Kohli was goaded by his mother to go back and complete his overnight innings against Karnataka after he lost his father to a sudden heart attack the previous night. The youngster was back at the crease, much to the amazement of his Delhi teammates, to score a resilient 90 to pull Delhi out of the woods.
There was almost a poignant quality to a video clip which went viral a day before where Kohli is asked by a kid, son of one of the Delhi teammates, on the recipe to play for India one day. ‘’You must be ready to work hard. If others are training for one hour, you should train for two…if one scores a fifty, you aim for a hundred,’’ he said in all seriousness.
The journey from being a talented and feisty young Delhi cricketer to one of the masters of the modern game has been well documented more than once. It’s anybody’s guess if the elite sportsperson – one of the highest paid athletes on Forbes list who plans to settle in England after he is done – may ever be back to where it all started.
But for now, Kohli seems to be soaking in all the warmth from the fans and the DDCA hospitality – not to speak of the simple lunch menu of kadhi chawl or chilly paneer!
