A Lovely Throwback Cricket Picture - Thanks for Sharing CV

 CV shared this lovely picture form 1986 - we had gone to play Inter-varsity cricket at Bangalore, representing Osmania University. DTS Prasad was our captain. I had just been dropped from the Ranji Trophy team and went on the varsity trip, disappointed and not knowing how to correct the loss in my bowling form (fixed mindset is what I know now). DTS was an old friend and we had a decent year playing for the varsity in the league championships (two big centuries that year - 158 that DTS got against SBI with Azhar and all, and a 156, I got against VST). 

Anyway the team was like - DTS, Masood, Vidyuth, CV Anand, Iftekhar, Srinivas Chakravarthy, Ganesh, Jai Kumar, Ajmal Asad, Chetan Anand, Subba Rao - and i'd love to remember the others. Let me see who I am missing - Masood, me, Ajmal and Chetan went to play Vizzy at Durg later.

Me, CV, Chetan, Ifti and Jai Kumar

Anyway, we played from round one, having lost the first round the year before at Calicut, beat Kakatiya University first (no wickets), Dharwad University (got a 10 ball 36 with 4 sixes, three in an over, one off the backfoot that caused Vidyuth to say - old man, hitting sixes off the backfoot, and a knock that made Ganesh's girlfriends ask him who I was), one other game that I don't remember and then Madras in the semis.

CV was in good form and got a few fifties and so did Vidyuth. Madara had Robin Singh, who had also been dropped in exactly the same game that I had. A bouncer by Robin hit CV on the head and he was hospitalised while in the middle of another lovely innings. He'd have played South Zone if not for that injury and we would have played the finals perhaps but then Madras seized the initiative after that and we lost with three wickets.

CV got some nice pictures from that trip and I am so glad he shared them. Here are a couple.

Me, Ifti, Jai, Chetan and Vidyuth, padded up (check out his LaCoste t shirt)

  Another time, we'd have beaten Madras - just too messed up then. I felt sorry for DTS who really wanted us to win. Lovely guy.