Winning...
Winning is wonderful. Winning against all odds is just fantastic! Winning in sports, especially team sports, gives me an unusual high that is very hard to describe. Simply put, nothing replaces the feeling of winning as a team.
Here's the story. During the past weekend (24th March), the Student Council of India conducted their annual Cricket competition for all the university and non-university folk. At the University of Maryland, I'm part of a Cricket club - The Cricket Club at UMD. We had enough members in our club to draft two teams - team 1 and team 2 - for the competition. I was initially in team1 - the "stronger" team. But I overslept (hahaha! come on...it was a Saturday!) and I had to be in team 2 - the "weaker" team - as the Captain. Weaker as it is, only 6 out of the 10 members showed up when the game time came. Our opponents wanted us to forfeit the game - since the rules said you need a full team of 10 members to play. I quickly ran around the ground asking everyone I ran into if they are available. None were! I found a couple of people who never played and I drafted them, assuring they will be OK playing Cricket for the first time. We finally had 10 players and won the match #1- with relative ease. We just had to place the weaker players in strategic spots and my team's smart play saved the day.
As fate would have it, we had to play our own club's team 1 in the next game. We stuck to the basics, played a disciplined game. It worked! We beat the "stronger" team!! Off we went to the semi-final. Same "weaker" team, same simple and straight game plan. We won! The final was a great game - especially for me. I had to contribute quite a bit to salvage our team's pride... and I did! We came up a bit short and lost the final. But it was a spirited competition, and we defended our score very well.
I can not describe how fulfilling captaining a winning team was. We beat the odds! I have heard a lot of people walking up to me and saying "Wow! We never knew you played Cricket!". Yes, I do play Cricket and today's wins were all because of my team. I was very proud of my boys and the lone girl who played in my team. Congratulations, guys! You did a great job. I'm swollen fat in pride!
Here's the story. During the past weekend (24th March), the Student Council of India conducted their annual Cricket competition for all the university and non-university folk. At the University of Maryland, I'm part of a Cricket club - The Cricket Club at UMD. We had enough members in our club to draft two teams - team 1 and team 2 - for the competition. I was initially in team1 - the "stronger" team. But I overslept (hahaha! come on...it was a Saturday!) and I had to be in team 2 - the "weaker" team - as the Captain. Weaker as it is, only 6 out of the 10 members showed up when the game time came. Our opponents wanted us to forfeit the game - since the rules said you need a full team of 10 members to play. I quickly ran around the ground asking everyone I ran into if they are available. None were! I found a couple of people who never played and I drafted them, assuring they will be OK playing Cricket for the first time. We finally had 10 players and won the match #1- with relative ease. We just had to place the weaker players in strategic spots and my team's smart play saved the day.
As fate would have it, we had to play our own club's team 1 in the next game. We stuck to the basics, played a disciplined game. It worked! We beat the "stronger" team!! Off we went to the semi-final. Same "weaker" team, same simple and straight game plan. We won! The final was a great game - especially for me. I had to contribute quite a bit to salvage our team's pride... and I did! We came up a bit short and lost the final. But it was a spirited competition, and we defended our score very well.
I can not describe how fulfilling captaining a winning team was. We beat the odds! I have heard a lot of people walking up to me and saying "Wow! We never knew you played Cricket!". Yes, I do play Cricket and today's wins were all because of my team. I was very proud of my boys and the lone girl who played in my team. Congratulations, guys! You did a great job. I'm swollen fat in pride!
Labels: Life
posted by Shriram at 10:13 AM Permanent Link
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