Prithvi
10 years at Planetcricket
As soon as I got into my abode for the next hour, which will take me to Bengaluru for the all important Indian Premier League, I open Facebook to update the status, and as soon as I open, I find yet another bunch of notifications, and yes, from the day I hit the news for being contracted by the RCB, I had been receiving messages from the famous pages related to Cricket news and unknown people are sending friend requests in heavy number.
I ignore all of them, and update my status "Yes, the all important day is here. On my way to Bengaluru to join Namma RCB."-
travelling to Bengaluru, India from Hyderabad, India.
This was my third journey in an aircraft, given that I always prefer trains when it comes to traveling to places. Even while I had been to Bengaluru for signing the contract, I had taken the train and I wanted to take the train this time around as well. But thanks to the very limited time and short notice, I had no other option but to fly.
Yes, I was asked to switch off my mobile phone and I had taken a brief nap, and I was woken up by crew, who told that we were about to land. I got freshened and yes, plane landing is always special.
I started moving out and I was waiting for my luggage, when the person to pick me up rang me up. With a brief negotiation, I finally found myself in the reception at the lavish ITC Gardenia, around 3 KMs from the RCB Home, M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
I was greeted by two ladies, and they put a "bindi" on my forehead. I was informed that my room was 119, and the room would be all for me until the end of the season. I felt happy, because in Ranji Trophy, we didn't had this kind of service. First of all, we were forced to be in the formidable hotel (Non-AC) even though it was our own city. And then we were not given the room for ourselves until the end of the season so that we could move our cricket equipment to that room and take it from there at the end of the season. For this reason, I was already feeling comfortable at RCB and the moment I enter the room, I was more in love with RCB.
"This is something which no one gets to experience easily! Yes- IPL is indeed lucrative, leave alone the salary, I'd play for free if they give me this type of treatment" I though myself and I was given a pamphlet, which had our schedule for next two days.
According to that piece of paper, we had the scheduled of when each player would join us and going by it, we already had many names like Badrinath, Dinda, Aaron, Chahal, Bisla to name a few. Big shots like Gayle, Sammy and de Villiers were expected to arrive early hours the next day. Kohli was scheduled to arrive the same evening.
And as I continued, there was a short welcome letter by our franchisee owner, Vijay. He wrote "Welcome to RCB. Feel free at this place and consider this like your home. Play Hard, Play Fair, Have Fun and Make History!"
This was all what I had been exactly dreaming. And then, the schedule for the coming two days followed. There was a team meeting scheduled at 18:00 hours, that is right after the arrival of the skipper. It was just 15:00 in the afternoon, and yes, I had all the time for myself. I tried to get some sleep, but it wasn't quite something I was able to achieve. I rang up a friend of mine who stays at Bengaluru and we thought of having a meet up with the gang of our Rail Enthusiasts for a short while so that I could return by 17:30.
We roamed across the streets of Bengaluru and thankfully, I was dropped at 17:40, I quickly got ready and I was there at the conference hall at 17:55. Yes, there were few players who have already come there and I was a bit nervous, meeting the team members for the first time.
I had went up to Yuzuvendra Chahal, with whom I had met in the Ranji times, especially when he was injured at Hyderabad, and he introduced me to few players like Varun, Ashok, who were the part of RCB in the last season as well. Four bowlers, and the experience of bowling in IPL was thrown into mix. Yes, it was my first IPL, but Ashok kept on telling me that IPL was no special when it came to cricket. Especially for bowlers, its the hardest time of the entire year because very players will be successful and most of the domestic bowlers would be targeted for increasing their run rate. And Varun advised me to practice bowling at precise targets on the pitch, so that it would be helpful at the games.
And then, the meeting organizer, our coach- Daniel Vettori, was finally at the mic, asking everyone to pay attention. Virat Kohli, the player who had inspired me at few stages of my life, had walked into the room and everybody greeted him. I gave him a shake-hand and told him my name.
Then, it was the time for introduction for the team joiners of the day, and I, along with Sean, Dinesh Karthik (KKD) and Virat had introduced ourselves. I was meeting the players from other countries for the first time, and it was pleasure to be at the camp.
It was Sean, who got the mic first, he introduced himself, and he had clearly mentioned that he was mentally doing well of late, and he was really looking forward for the IPL.
Virat had handed the mic to Dinesh Karthik and he gave a brief introduction, with Badrinath pulling his legs, creating hilarious atmosphere around.
The captain pat me on my back and handed the mic, and I was kind of nervous. This kind of introduction was something which I had never seen beforehand, and I spoke out
"Good evening people. I'm Prithvi Raj, referred as Binnu. I'm a right arm medium pace bowler, and I come from Hyderabad. I play for Hyderabad Ranji team, and my native roots are from Karnataka. Ardent fan of trains and yes, I wish we all could travel in train."
No sooner I told that, Virat spoke "Trains? Dude, are you crazy or what?"
Few hilarious comments blew- like marriage in train and sex in train, but later Dan interrupted and asked Virat to introduce. He was shy, and yes, slogans attracting ladies flew and the hilarious dialogues had no limit.
It was time for some snacks, and yes, just before heading to the snacks, our physiotherapist had clear cut instructions to us, no outside food three days prior to match. And we were asked to tell our superstitions (this itself was embarrassing) so that they would do something and I didn't listen that given that telling a superstition isn't something which happens often.
Some snacks and we were back at the hall.
We all were given tabs, with an app opened, where we could type in something and submit. Dan had informed us that there are two such pages- the first is for our batting and the second is about our bowling. He insisted us to write down our weaknesses in the respective department.
With regards to batting- I had written that I was probably a number XI batsman, who would end up batting at XI even if I was playing for some university. Although I kind of defend well, but against spinners, I can connect the bat to the ball for loft shots.
With regards to bowling- I being a specialist bowler, had faced problem to decide when to make use of variations I had. I had wide range of deliveries, but I didn't knew which one to use at a precise point of over while bowling to a particular batsman. Without any hesitation, I had written it and hit on "Submit".
Then it was announced- a small fitness session, and we were ordered to get geared up in practice kits and get assembled in the gym by 19:30 sharp. We were also informed that in the two way wardrobe, our practice kits were available.
To be continued..
I ignore all of them, and update my status "Yes, the all important day is here. On my way to Bengaluru to join Namma RCB."-
This was my third journey in an aircraft, given that I always prefer trains when it comes to traveling to places. Even while I had been to Bengaluru for signing the contract, I had taken the train and I wanted to take the train this time around as well. But thanks to the very limited time and short notice, I had no other option but to fly.
Yes, I was asked to switch off my mobile phone and I had taken a brief nap, and I was woken up by crew, who told that we were about to land. I got freshened and yes, plane landing is always special.
I started moving out and I was waiting for my luggage, when the person to pick me up rang me up. With a brief negotiation, I finally found myself in the reception at the lavish ITC Gardenia, around 3 KMs from the RCB Home, M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.
I was greeted by two ladies, and they put a "bindi" on my forehead. I was informed that my room was 119, and the room would be all for me until the end of the season. I felt happy, because in Ranji Trophy, we didn't had this kind of service. First of all, we were forced to be in the formidable hotel (Non-AC) even though it was our own city. And then we were not given the room for ourselves until the end of the season so that we could move our cricket equipment to that room and take it from there at the end of the season. For this reason, I was already feeling comfortable at RCB and the moment I enter the room, I was more in love with RCB.
"This is something which no one gets to experience easily! Yes- IPL is indeed lucrative, leave alone the salary, I'd play for free if they give me this type of treatment" I though myself and I was given a pamphlet, which had our schedule for next two days.
According to that piece of paper, we had the scheduled of when each player would join us and going by it, we already had many names like Badrinath, Dinda, Aaron, Chahal, Bisla to name a few. Big shots like Gayle, Sammy and de Villiers were expected to arrive early hours the next day. Kohli was scheduled to arrive the same evening.
And as I continued, there was a short welcome letter by our franchisee owner, Vijay. He wrote "Welcome to RCB. Feel free at this place and consider this like your home. Play Hard, Play Fair, Have Fun and Make History!"
This was all what I had been exactly dreaming. And then, the schedule for the coming two days followed. There was a team meeting scheduled at 18:00 hours, that is right after the arrival of the skipper. It was just 15:00 in the afternoon, and yes, I had all the time for myself. I tried to get some sleep, but it wasn't quite something I was able to achieve. I rang up a friend of mine who stays at Bengaluru and we thought of having a meet up with the gang of our Rail Enthusiasts for a short while so that I could return by 17:30.
We roamed across the streets of Bengaluru and thankfully, I was dropped at 17:40, I quickly got ready and I was there at the conference hall at 17:55. Yes, there were few players who have already come there and I was a bit nervous, meeting the team members for the first time.
I had went up to Yuzuvendra Chahal, with whom I had met in the Ranji times, especially when he was injured at Hyderabad, and he introduced me to few players like Varun, Ashok, who were the part of RCB in the last season as well. Four bowlers, and the experience of bowling in IPL was thrown into mix. Yes, it was my first IPL, but Ashok kept on telling me that IPL was no special when it came to cricket. Especially for bowlers, its the hardest time of the entire year because very players will be successful and most of the domestic bowlers would be targeted for increasing their run rate. And Varun advised me to practice bowling at precise targets on the pitch, so that it would be helpful at the games.
And then, the meeting organizer, our coach- Daniel Vettori, was finally at the mic, asking everyone to pay attention. Virat Kohli, the player who had inspired me at few stages of my life, had walked into the room and everybody greeted him. I gave him a shake-hand and told him my name.
Then, it was the time for introduction for the team joiners of the day, and I, along with Sean, Dinesh Karthik (KKD) and Virat had introduced ourselves. I was meeting the players from other countries for the first time, and it was pleasure to be at the camp.
It was Sean, who got the mic first, he introduced himself, and he had clearly mentioned that he was mentally doing well of late, and he was really looking forward for the IPL.
Virat had handed the mic to Dinesh Karthik and he gave a brief introduction, with Badrinath pulling his legs, creating hilarious atmosphere around.
The captain pat me on my back and handed the mic, and I was kind of nervous. This kind of introduction was something which I had never seen beforehand, and I spoke out
"Good evening people. I'm Prithvi Raj, referred as Binnu. I'm a right arm medium pace bowler, and I come from Hyderabad. I play for Hyderabad Ranji team, and my native roots are from Karnataka. Ardent fan of trains and yes, I wish we all could travel in train."
No sooner I told that, Virat spoke "Trains? Dude, are you crazy or what?"
Few hilarious comments blew- like marriage in train and sex in train, but later Dan interrupted and asked Virat to introduce. He was shy, and yes, slogans attracting ladies flew and the hilarious dialogues had no limit.
It was time for some snacks, and yes, just before heading to the snacks, our physiotherapist had clear cut instructions to us, no outside food three days prior to match. And we were asked to tell our superstitions (this itself was embarrassing) so that they would do something and I didn't listen that given that telling a superstition isn't something which happens often.
Some snacks and we were back at the hall.
We all were given tabs, with an app opened, where we could type in something and submit. Dan had informed us that there are two such pages- the first is for our batting and the second is about our bowling. He insisted us to write down our weaknesses in the respective department.
With regards to batting- I had written that I was probably a number XI batsman, who would end up batting at XI even if I was playing for some university. Although I kind of defend well, but against spinners, I can connect the bat to the ball for loft shots.
With regards to bowling- I being a specialist bowler, had faced problem to decide when to make use of variations I had. I had wide range of deliveries, but I didn't knew which one to use at a precise point of over while bowling to a particular batsman. Without any hesitation, I had written it and hit on "Submit".
Then it was announced- a small fitness session, and we were ordered to get geared up in practice kits and get assembled in the gym by 19:30 sharp. We were also informed that in the two way wardrobe, our practice kits were available.
To be continued..
.
.
