Cisco Cricket

Been more than an year since i posted, time has gone by pretty fast, but not so easy. Beginning of the year was quite hectic, with loads of work and hardly a minute to spare. March was nice to me, could take my wife along on a short US trip. had to sell my stocks to take her !! Sad but true, but i had one of the best months of my life there. Went to SFO, Las Vegas casinos, Los Angeles. Visited Sunil and family, Vikas and family and Maama thaatha as well.

Cricket had taken a back seat, as Dev had quit Cisco and we were left without a sponsor. Fortunately I was referred to Sameer Padhye, SVP, Advanced Services, who was eager to sponsor us and go beyond. I had a couple of chats with over phone in SJ and in India and he continues to amaze me. Extremely energetic, deep thinker, very vibrant and dynamic personality. Its very rarely that one gets to meet such personalities.

The cricket season started during the 3rd quarter of this year, and we played some tourneys and lost miserably. We seem to have improved a lot over the year, however. Lot of new champs have come in and started pushing people for their places, competition has gone up and people are on their toes. It wouldn't be a bad idea to tell you all about my great Cisco Cricket team. Here are some names and what i feel about these leather hunters,

1. Arun MR- outstanding performer since i have known him, more than 3 years now and has been the most consistent bowler. very useful bat, and extremely quick between wickets, good fielder too. Parties regularly on Friday nights and gives outrageous reasons for not turning up next day. One remarkable explanation, for not turning up at the grounds, for the match, kit was with him..." Macha, my friend is getting engaged suddenly, am on the way to Mysore !!"
   
   
2. Prem Nithin - Works for sales, handles Wipro account, just finished his CCIE - congrats mate. A solid middle order bat and steady bowler. Good all rounder to have in any team. As is the case, he once had this reason for not turning up " My dog is alone at home, and there is none to take care of him "!! Hoz that for a reason?
   
   
3. Srinivas Nagaraj - Fondly called as "Uncle" , he's 34 i guess and the oldest member in our team. Excellent wicket keeper, stands up for our pace bowlers and does a fabulous job. Been quite regular for all matches so far, but doesn't turn up for nets. Provides valuable inputs time and again and motivates all new comers. Sometimes naughty !!
   
   
4. Deepak - loves backs, be it cars or girls, doesn't miss a chance to, you know what ! Wonderful cricketer, hard hitting batsman, and bowls quick too. Along with Arun and Prem, forms the backbone of our team. Has played some pleasing knocks for us over the last one year. Quite lazy, does not turn up for nets often. Should take more responsibility.
   
   
5. Karthik/Sreesha - Very committed, turn up regularly for nets, matches. Yet to develop into a solid bat. Working hard towards it, i have lots of faith in their abilities and should soon be pressing the pedal.
   
   
6. Ravi Kiran - Awesome batsman, has not played much this year, and is getting into shape right now, he would probably take some more time and be a part of our team soon. Played some blistering knocks for us earlier, great ability. Should get fitter, field better and run faster.
   
   

There are many others, Revant, Anshu, Niju, Sagar, Chetan, Vijay who have joined our team recently and are performing admirably. Its only in the last few weeks that my efforts of building a class cricket team has borne some fruit. From a situation where we hunted for players, we have a situation where we are rotating players, which is a healthy sign. I hope we continue to unearth new talent in Cisco and become a force to reckon in Bangalore circuit.

Right now, we are in the middle of TNT Cup, grouped with TNT, Mindtree and SAP GDC. We have played 2 matches, won 1 and lost 1. Defeated SAP quite comfortably, and lost a thrilling battle with TNT. Few catches went down, quite a lot of runs leaked while fielding, as we set about chasing 142 in 20 overs, in the end we fell short by 7 runs. This defeat still rankles and rattles me, having a tough time trying to sleep.


We have got some new cricket gears, couple of solid bats, a dozen balls, batting gloves and a new kit bag. We have a match coming up this weekend against Mindtree, a win should get us through to pre-quarters and a loss would kick us out of the tournament. We are politely confident of winning, given our sound performance last match and over the last few months.

Good luck Cisco hunters.