Story Rohan Ghosh Associate Cricketer

[Ishaan k]

Hi everyone on PC I wanted to start a new story about an Associate Cricketer from Canada and his journey to the Canadian national team and beyond. At this I would like to state that I might not be the most grammatically correct person on PC but I will still try and make an interesting story.



Chapter 1 TDCA Elite Divison final intoduction

It's been a long time since the days I first picked up a bat. No longer am I hitting a cricket ball against the garage door and getting perplexed looks from my neighbours. I am now playing in the elite divison finals. The drive up to the Toronto Cricket Club was a short one it is right next to my house . It is a beautiful ground . My team Vikings was playing against the Ontario Cricket Academy in the finals. It was a beautiful sunny day as my dad dropped me off at the clubhouse. He then proceeded to the stands wishing me good luck. I then proceeded to the dressing room I was sweating in my suit plus I felt more comfortable in my whites. Some of my teamates were already there, we knew each other pretty well. In times past players like Sachin Tendulakr, Sourav Ganguly, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis sat on these benches. Now were seated players like Abraash and Arsalan Khan. Players I played against in the age group levels and also teamates from clubs I used to play for. Like Devon and Adam I had known them from our days playing for Superstars Sports Club I knew them since the age of 8. I sighed remembering that I was playing serious cricket know. Abraash the captain had played for Canada in all age levels since under 13. He made a quick speech before the star of play. " Ok guys we made this far and we will go all the way, Devon we need you to bowl outside off constantly they cant play well there, Rohan we need you to keep the runs down from your end and then Adam and I will go for the Kill; rest of you guys field sharply we dont want anything going down." Davis the OCA captain won the toss and elected to bat first. As with most wickets in Canada the bounce is even and the pitches are slow because the ground is frozen 7 months of the year. As we where playing in the elite divison we had a good mix of youth and experience. We had 5 under-19 Canadian cricketers, 3 former Canadian internationals, 3 local players and then me I was only 18 years old and playing in the Elite finals. We set out on to the field the OCA openers strided to the middle , the umpires where out and so was our team. I was fielding at backwards point. Devon charged in with the first delivery the batsman shouldered arms. The next ball started on middle and moved off the seam to off the batsman cut hard at it . My eyes lit up, if I took it it would be a blinder. I dove full stretch and............ to be continued in the next part





Toronto cricket club
[

Vikings cricket club logo

 

[Ishaan k]

match sheet for the finals

 

[qpeedore]

Beautiful. Love the start. I hope you take the catch!



Chapter 1 TDCA Elite Divison final intoduction

It's been a long time since the days I first picked up a bat. No longer am I hitting a cricket ball against the garage door and getting perplexed looks from my neighbours. I am now playing in the elite divison finals. The drive up to the Toronto Cricket Club was a short one it is right next to my house . It is a beautiful ground . My team Vikings was playing against the Ontario Cricket Academy in the finals. It was a beautiful sunny day as my dad dropped me off at the clubhouse. He then proceeded to the stands wishing me good luck. I then proceeded to the dressing room I was sweating in my suit plus I felt more comfortable in my whites. Some of my teamates were already there, we knew each other pretty well. In times past players like Sachin Tendulakr, Sourav Ganguly, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis sat on these benches. Now were seated players like Abraash and Arsalan Khan. Players I played against in the age group levels and also teamates from clubs I used to play for. Like Devon and Adam I had known them from our days playing for Superstars Sports Club I knew them since the age of 8. I sighed remembering that I was playing serious cricket know. Abraash the captain had played for Canada in all age levels since under 13. He made a quick speech before the star of play. " Ok guys we made this far and we will go all the way, Devon we need you to bowl outside off constantly they cant play well there, Rohan we need you to keep the runs down from your end and then Adam and I will go for the Kill; rest of you guys field sharply we dont want anything going down." Davis the OCA captain won the toss and elected to bat first. As with most wickets in Canada the bounce is even and the pitches are slow because the ground is frozen 7 months of the year. As we where playing in the elite divison we had a good mix of youth and experience. We had 5 under-19 Canadian cricketers, 3 former Canadian internationals, 3 local players and then me I was only 18 years old and playing in the Elite finals. We set out on to the field the OCA openers strided to the middle , the umpires where out and so was our team. I was fielding at backwards point. Devon charged in with the first delivery the batsman shouldered arms. The next ball started on middle and moved off the seam to off the batsman cut hard at it . My eyes lit up, if I took it it would be a blinder. I dove full stretch and............ to be continued in the next part





Toronto cricket club
View attachment 130484 [

Vikings cricket club logo


[/QUOTE]

Hi everyone on PC I wanted to start a new story about an Associate Cricketer from Canada and his journey to the Canadian national team and beyond. At this I would like to state that I might not be the most grammatically correct person on PC but I will still try and make an interesting story.



Chapter 1 TDCA Elite Divison final intoduction

It's been a long time since the days I first picked up a bat. No longer am I hitting a cricket ball against the garage door and getting perplexed looks from my neighbours. I am now playing in the elite divison finals. The drive up to the Toronto Cricket Club was a short one it is right next to my house . It is a beautiful ground . My team Vikings was playing against the Ontario Cricket Academy in the finals. It was a beautiful sunny day as my dad dropped me off at the clubhouse. He then proceeded to the stands wishing me good luck. I then proceeded to the dressing room I was sweating in my suit plus I felt more comfortable in my whites. Some of my teamates were already there, we knew each other pretty well. In times past players like Sachin Tendulakr, Sourav Ganguly, Wasim Akram and Waqar Younis sat on these benches. Now were seated players like Abraash and Arsalan Khan. Players I played against in the age group levels and also teamates from clubs I used to play for. Like Devon and Adam I had known them from our days playing for Superstars Sports Club I knew them since the age of 8. I sighed remembering that I was playing serious cricket know. Abraash the captain had played for Canada in all age levels since under 13. He made a quick speech before the star of play. " Ok guys we made this far and we will go all the way, Devon we need you to bowl outside off constantly they cant play well there, Rohan we need you to keep the runs down from your end and then Adam and I will go for the Kill; rest of you guys field sharply we dont want anything going down." Davis the OCA captain won the toss and elected to bat first. As with most wickets in Canada the bounce is even and the pitches are slow because the ground is frozen 7 months of the year. As we where playing in the elite divison we had a good mix of youth and experience. We had 5 under-19 Canadian cricketers, 3 former Canadian internationals, 3 local players and then me I was only 18 years old and playing in the Elite finals. We set out on to the field the OCA openers strided to the middle , the umpires where out and so was our team. I was fielding at backwards point. Devon charged in with the first delivery the batsman shouldered arms. The next ball started on middle and moved off the seam to off the batsman cut hard at it . My eyes lit up, if I took it it would be a blinder. I dove full stretch and............ to be continued in the next part





Toronto cricket club
View attachment 130484 [

Vikings cricket club logo

 

[Ishaan k]

Chapter 2 The TDCA Finals 1 Innings

I took an absolute blinder the OCA opener Bob Davis absolutely smashed the ball right out of the middle of the bat I dove full length to my left and plucked the ball out of the air just as the ball was about to touch the ground. Davis looked shocked so did everyone else on the field it looked like a certain boundary. It was the dream start for our team
Davis was their danger man in the semi finals he scored 150* against the Toronto cricket club and we had gotten him out cheaply. At number 3 Nikhil Dutta cantered towards the crease looking determined. The next few overs were good to us the ball was uncharacteristically doing a bit and at the end of 3 overs they were 15/1. D'Souza seemed to be getting impatient as he was not scoring at a quick rate he was normally a very dominating batsman. He was struggling to put bat on ball and was looking for a big hit. Abraash noticed this and asked me to bowl. D'Souza wanted to go after me the first ball I bowled so I bowled down the leg side he went for a heave he missed and it was an easy stumping for Sorraine our keeper he was out for 7 . We had them realing at 15/2. Ashish Bagai former Canadian captain came in at number 4 he was extremely dangerous. I bowled chinaman spin which many batsman had never seen. But Bagai seemed very familiar with it and lofted me for two sixes later that over. He and Dutta but on a good partnership they nullified our spinners and even Devon and Abraash. They had just put on 50 runs in 5 overs. They were 65/2 after 8 overs which was an outstanding recovery Bagai was on 30 and Dutta on 25. We had to bring in our firepower who came in the form of Adam. He was extremely quick. The fastest bowler in Canada who even played some minor county cricket. The first ball he bowled was beautiful. Dutta was only 19 himself and had rarely seen such quick bowling. Adam bowled an in swinging yorker at 145 kph Dutta didnt see it coming and the ball careened into his leg stump and sent it cartwheeling. Dutta made a decent 25 runs. Mohammed Iqbal came in at number 5 he was a local player in his late 30's. He and Bagai slowed down the run rate and knocked the ball around a bit. After 13 overs OCA were 94/3. Something had to give they had to up the scoring. Bagai took a risk against the slow medium bowling of Yodeo Persaud he charged him but Persaud very skillfully bowled a quicker ball at 124 kph and bowled Bagai for 39. Iqbal was on 20 at the other end. Jeremy Singh walked out of the pavillion. He was a former superstars player but left in a fit of rage when he was not selected for a match. For six overs he and Iqbal Smashed the ball around the park. It was raining sixes and fours nothing was going right. In the end OCA ended their innings at 139/3 Iqbal ended 44* and Singh 22*. 140 was not the biggest score in world usually but OCA had a battery of pace bowlers they had two express bowlers and three fast medium bowlers. Seeing the amount of movement we got off the pitch we were shaking to see what they would get. To be continued in the next chapter

 

[Ishaan k]

Chapter 3 The TDCA Finals 2 Innings

Our openers walked carefully towards the middle. Daniel Sorraine and Rajiv Ramdass were extremely experienced campaigners. But today they looked at the pitch as if it was a minefield. Ehsan Mohammed who played for Cardiff MCCU in England charged in with first ball. He banged it in short the ball took of the pitch and hit Sorraine's helmet with a thud. BANG! Sorraine was unsure what to do so he took of for a bye but he meet a stationary Ramdass by the time he sprinted back the bails were off and the opposition was celebrating. This was the worst possible start we could have asked for. Adam was promoted up the order to number 3. Mohammed smiled he thought he was going to get an easy wicket so he banged it in short Adam's eyes lit up as he swivelled and pulled the ball for six Mohammed was stunned. Ramdass was playing circumspectly where as Adam was in the zone. Ramdass was edgy and mistiming the ball. Bagai saw an opportunity for a wicket he asked Eric White to bowl to Ramdass. The score was 28/1 after 4. White started with 3 short balls Ramdass was being peppered. The next ball he had enough he went for a almighty swing but the only thing that went anywhere was his off stump which went cartwheeling back a few meters. It was 28/2 when I walked in. It was a pretty surreal feeling for me I was batting where Tendulkar and Dravid stood 20 years ago. I took my leg stump guard. White steamed in and bowled one lucky for me it was a half volley outside off and I smashed it to the boundary rope. Adam and I had batted together for years. We knew each other since our u-15 days. So we started batting at first we started cautiously knocking the ball around a bit. Getting some runs to set up a large platform to strike on. We were going quite well after 8 overs we were 74/2. Then I felt some drops, then another and another. Until a ton of rain came pouring down. I was livid the final could not be decided on D/L that was just crazy. I thought to myself, will the rain stop......... find out in the next chapter

 

[Ishaan k]

The rain finally stopped unfortunately for us, T and D umpires are notorious for not understanding rules. We were now going to have to chase 110 runs, apparently that was what D/L said, personally I think the umpires made the score up. Anyways we only had 6 more overs to chase down 40 something runs. Adam and I had to make sure the bowlers did not settle because it was a minefield. Alvin came into the attack, I had a laugh with Adam because we played with him all the way back in u-13 cricket, and we used to beat him around the bush. We stopped laughing after the first ball he bowled which was a vicious bouncer that made me weave and jump out of the way. He meant business, but he was nothing special, I charged him next ball and hit him right back over his head for six. The rest of the attack was nothing special either, Adam who played minor county cricket in England, ate the OCA bowling up. In the end it only took us 4 overs to chase the 40 down. I ended 20 something not out and so did Adam. We cruised to victory. As cricket is not a major sport in Canada there was no over the top celebrations. But when I got home, I was in for a shock, the cricket association of Bengal was on the phone for me.

To be continued in the next part

 

[Targaryen]

Good execution of the story. Just keep writing and entertain us all.

 

[Ishaan k]

The man who was calling me was non other than the great Sourav Ganguly, head of the Cricket Association of Bengal. Unbeknownst the me Bengal scouts were watching me, not in Toronto but in Kolkata. Every summer I played club cricket in Kolkata for the Ashok Malhotra Cricket Academy, last summer I had a dream run in 5, 50 over games I scored 700 runs, with a top score of 179*. It really wasn't that hard honestly, the bowlers were trundlers hardly hitting 130, and the spinners well, I hit enough runs off the ''pacers'' to play the spinners properly. The Bengal team was looking for new and interesting signings. For Bengal. because my family are from Kolkata, and because I have an OCI, I was the perfect candidate for this little experiment.Plus im sure this would be picked up on mainstream media in Canada and certainly in India , this was probably a publicity stunt or something like that. But I didn't care, they would give me a trial period this year, as I took a gap year between my first year of university which would be at Oxford, I had nothing to lose from playing for Bengal. I mean I grew up watching Dada, Tiwary, Saha, Shami and various others play for Bengal so why not. I packed my bags and headed to Kolkata, all payed for by the CAB interestingly enough. The flight would take me from Toronto to Dubai and then to Kolkata. But it would give me time to think, as my first game would be the day after I landed in Kolkata. After leaving the comfortable bedroom of my grandfather's house, I was right to Eden Gardens, only stopping to have a little bite of some rosogollas at the panthua shop. I was of course wearing the kit of my long time sponsor Northern Cricket Company, owned by Brian Junior Lara, me playing for Bengal has repaid the faith he put in me all these years. It was a surreal first experience at the nets at Eden Gardens, Mohammed Shami was bolting down thunderbolts, Saha was taking some blinders over at the catching practise station. As for me well I was just standing there marvelling at the size of Eden Gardens, I had been here as a child, I watched Virat Kohli score one of his first international century, and I saw Sachin get out for 12........ Anyways my first match was the next day, I wonder how it will go. Continued in the next part

 

[Ishaan k]

Media with the last post


real author's sponsored equipment by Northern Cricket Company

 

[Ishaan k]

Although Eden Gardens was basically empty, that certainly being due to the rise of the IPL, I was super excited. I would make my debut against Tamil Nadu, who have very respectable players. Then it struck I would have to face R Ashwin!!!!! Putting it aside I wanted to focus on my debut. One very interesting thing happened before the match however, JJ Basu, or Jayojit, wanted to have a little quick contest to see who was the fastest bowler in the side, I used to bowl a little bit of seam when I was younger, before I started bowling chinamen spinners, that being said most of those chinamen deliveries were pies. Anyways JJ, steamed in and was clocked at 145, JJ smiled knowing that Shami wasn't playing today and thought that no one was going to beat him. I used to bowl off 20 steps, so I marked my run up and too my surprised heard a WOOOSH and heard the ball smash into Saha's gloves, I was clocked at 147, I thought it was a joke but it seems that I got faster since the last time I tried to bowl quick. To be honest when I was 15 I was bowling around 120-125 and I did put on a bit of muscle, at most I thought my effort ball would be 135 but I guess it's actually 145! Jokes aside the Bengal team looked perplexed, and duly noted that speed. We lost the toss and were put into bowl. But the biggest surprise was when JJ handed me the new ball!!!! I laughed and thought it was a joke but no he really wanted me to bowl so I did. Great I thought my debut at the Ranjii trophy level was going to be marked by figures of 0-2000. But actually when I bowled my first over the batsman had no idea, I was bowling with real pace. But they seemed to handle me pretty well the first three balls yielding 6 runs, but then 2 dots and finally I bowled a vicious outswinger at 150 which flew off Mukund's bat and right to Saha! I was ecstatic I pickt up a wicket. Shortly after I was put in my place by Dinesh Karthik, and happily bowed out of the attack. JJ steam rolled through them with only Dinesh putting up in resistance. In the end I picked up two tail end wickets that of Balaji and of Rangagranjan, ending with figures of 3/68 in 21 overs at an economy of 3.2. But I thought my time to shine was now, with the bat. Das and Banerjee put up 56 runs for the first wicket and then Banerjee got out after a 50 run partnership with Tiwary, now was my time to shine, I was relishing smashing the TN trundlers to all parts of the ground. But I had to face off against R Ashwin, a bowler with years of experience. I took my middle leg guard, and prepared to face the ball, but everything seemed to slow down, the ball, the puff of dust, the turn, the sound of my nick, DK's appeal, the dreaded umpires finger. I was out for a first ball duck, crestfallen, I trudged off the pitch. Then everything went wrong Saha got out and in the end JJ was the glue that held the innings together with 112. The second innings started, and JJ ran through them with 6/40. I was involved in the dismissal of Rangaranjan, I took a great catch at slip, the ball was travelling and I used the reverse cup technique. We needed only 114 to win, Banerjee got out cheap, and JJ promoted me to three, I was determined not to get out, and I opened my account with a beautiful glance off my pads for 4. But then Das got out a few balls later, and so did Tiwary all of us sudden we were 52-3. Saha came to the crease and calmed me down. We then batted slowly and calmly and put on 59 runs for the fourth wicket. I was on 48 with only 3 runs left to win the match. Saha told me to keep the strike so I could make 50. I did but unfortunately trying to hit a 6 to win the watch, I nicked behind. Although I was devastated to not make 50, the team won and that's what mattered. Shortly after the match I was told that I was to attend an important meeting with CAB before the next match, to review my performance. Im very worried about it. Continued in the next part

 

[Ishaan k]

Media for the last part (scorecard)