The background

Ok - here's the deal. The P&G Singapore cricket team has come a long way! This is our 4th year in existence and we've taken on many different faces.

To start with, we had Sriram as our first captain. In a moment of enthusiasm, Sriram and I registered a P&G team in Division 3 (that was the bottom division then) of the Singapore Cricket League. We ended the year with an average of 8 players on the field and a position that was well south of mid-table! But we enjoyed the year. Some highlights... (a) Anoopsy Daisy's champion opening bowling, (b) Sumeet Mehta's left arm quicks, (c) 2 back to back games won (the only 2 games we won all season) driven by a couple of interns, (d) Ambrish Jain getting run out for 0 without facing a single ball and giving Naresh Sharma a mouthful for that! (e) Mark Stan's first ball of the innings six and his express 95 which I think was in the same game, (f) Manish - the guy who ended the year with the highest average, but couldn't hold a catch to save his life.

After a bottom table end to the season and many stalwarts succumbing to injuries, other priorities or overseas assignments, the following year we weren't able to register a P&G team. But a bunch of us (Sriram, me, Shivvy etc) played with Kaybee. I hated that season - largely coz I didn't score anything (as Shivvy once said - I scored fewer runs than there are kms between Newton and Novena) but also because I generally didn't like the team dynamic... couple of talented guys, but the rest were duds (which is not the problem in itself) who acted like they were good enough to play for Australia or something (therein lied the problem). Trudged through that season again in Div 3 with results not much better than the previous year.

Then year 3. Resurgence of the team. New blood came in from the P&G India team. We went from a Work Life Balance Philosophy to being Paddu's boot camp and in a general state of constant panic and over intellectualization. I don't mean any of this in a bad way. In fact, it worked out quite well for us. We finished 4th out of 20 teams and this got us promoted to Div 3 (whether that's a good thing or bad, only time will tell), won us the Knock out tournament. So it was quite a stellar year. Essentially belonged to Bakir (for me - undoubtedly the best batsman I've seen in Singapore so far), Paddu (the man is a machine! seriously impressive), Nitin Goel/Swappy/Venkat (all bowled their hearts out). Apart from a bit of a slump at the end of the season, we became an unbeatable outfit.

Now year 4. As a lung opener, we won a 20-20 tournament (Bakir ruled again). We're in Div 3 in the league. Life is more competitive. We just got plundered by Indi CC in our first game of the season. The bowling was rusty (pretty much everyone went for 7 an over in a 35 over game). The batting was brittle. All in all, an unimpressive display from us. What gives me heart though is that it wasn't so much that they beat us as much as us beating ourselves. So if we play to the level we did last year, there's no reason we can't get to the top 3 in Div 3. Well - time will tell.

As I write this, the boys should be playing our 2nd league game against Emerio. I'm bummed I couldn't play this one. Work kept me in Manila! But looking forward to good news.

Now I started off this blog to spark more intellectual debate and banter. Once in a while we might review a game. Shivvy - I'll give you author rights. Anyone else who feels like penning blog entries, let me know. I'll add you in as an author. Else you can always just leave comments.