The Cricket Redemption

Some college memories stay because something extraordinary happened.

Others stay for reasons you understand only much later.

This one is about cricket.

I played for our engineering college team.

We were not a great team.

We were not terrible either.

We were somewhere in between.

We would enter inter-college competitions, win a few matches, lose some, and usually manage to stay around for some time.

One reason was our coach.

He knew the game well and taught us the basics properly.

We may not have had the strongest players, but we had some structure.

Then he left our college and joined another one.

We did not get another coach.

So suddenly it was left to us.

We had to organise ourselves, practise ourselves and somehow keep the team going.

Bala was our captain.

Ashok, Balaji, Vimalkanth, Valavan and a few others were part of that team.

I cannot remember every name now.

But I remember that phase.

Things started getting harder.

In one tournament, we lost very badly.

In another, we were knocked out much earlier than we were used to.

Then came another competition.

By then, our former coach was with another college team.

Because he had worked with us before, he knew our setup well.

Our team had students from both the engineering and management colleges.

He raised an objection with the organisers about whether some of our players were eligible to represent the team.

A few of our players were removed.

We did not have a large squad to begin with.

That weakened us badly.

We lost.

I do not remember exactly what was said that day.

I do remember how it felt.

We were already struggling as a team.

Now we had lost players before we could even properly compete.

It was demoralising.

But there was no big moment after that.

No team meeting where we promised revenge.

No dramatic speech from Bala.

No one saying, “Next time we will show them.”

We just moved on.

Then the next competition came.

We entered it as usual.

And we were not playing particularly well.

There was no great turnaround.

We were just playing our cricket and trying to stay in the tournament.

Then somewhere along the way, we realised something.

If we kept progressing, we could meet our former coach’s team.

That possibility did something to us.

Not anger.

Not revenge.

We simply wanted the chance to play them.

But before we could do that, we first had to get through our own matches.

And slowly, the team started coming together.

We seemed a little more focused.

A little more determined.

We started playing better together.

Nothing else had changed.

Same players.

Same team.

Still no coach.

We had not suddenly become more talented.

We just had something all of us wanted.

We kept going.

Eventually, we reached the third-place match.

And there they were.

The team coached by the man who had once coached us.

They were stronger than us.

We were the underdogs.

I wish I could tell you the score.

I cannot.

I do not remember who top-scored.

I do not remember who took the important wickets.

I do not even remember how close the match was.

But I remember that we won.

And I remember how happy we were.

Not angry.

Not shouting at anyone.

Not trying to prove something afterwards.

Just happy.

We had wanted another chance to play them.

We got it.

And this time, we beat them.

It was only a third-place match.

We did not win the tournament.

There was no trophy that changed our lives.

But after all these years, I can still remember that match.

Maybe that is what college memories are like.

The score disappears.

The details disappear.

Even some of the names slowly become harder to remember.

But the feeling stays.