India domestic : Subbaiah Pillai; Deodhar and Vijay Hazare Trophy

The fifth edition of  T20 World Cup is set to begin at Bangladesh on 16th Mar 2014 and will be on till 6th April…..  Bangladesh is hosting and  it will be played in three cities — Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet.  For the first time the tournament will have 16 teams including all ten full members and six associate members who qualified through the 2013 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier.

cricket at Marina ground (Presidency college grounds)

In the din of IPL – most domestic Cricket would be forgotten – gone are the days when Triplicanites used to follow Palayampatti Shield… after the Pongal Tests of Chepauk ….. ODI treat came years later to Chennai – in between the limited overs tourney most enjoyed was Deodhar Trophy held since 1973 – the 50 over match between Zones… Remember in 1980-81 Deodhar match at Chepauk, Thirumalai Echampadi Srinivasan shred to pieces West bowling scoring a masterly 129 outclassing Krish Srikkanth, and eventually getting selected for that tour of Australia – Newzealand… that was an innings of class written all over.

Then there was the KS Subbaiah Pillai trophy – the One day tournament between State sides.  Not many would have followed Tamil Nadu’s win last week – with that win over Karnataka – it was no knock-out, but based on points TN got 18; while Karnataka got 14 and both qualified … qualified – for what ?

In between, getting into National side, is tough – even for those who are talented…. (not for all though …. Remember Rohit  returned making less than 15 runs in 5 innings in Lanka and followed up with a 4 at Chepuak against Pakistan – made a 200 after persistent chances and then failed in SA and NZ)…..  after Gavaskar asking ‘why no Pujara’ comes the news that Cheteshwar Pujara has begun to bowl in the nets so that he can add another aspect to his game. Pujara has increasingly become a popular choice for a batting slot in the Indian ODI side, but the team management has resisted playing him. His only two ODIs have come against Zimbabwe when most of the senior batsmen were resting.  He was not given a chance even in that inconsequential match against Afghan when India had already been knocked out….. perhaps has made him realize that good batting alone is not enough !  ~ the commitment to expanding his skills comes on the back of wanting to be part of the World Cup side.

For those of us not following domestic keenly, Vijay Hazare trophy the 50 overs limited competition is now on…. Centuries from Robin Uthappa and Karun Nair helped Karnataka overcome a top-order collapse to punch the team's semi-final ticket with a 27-run win over Gujarat.  For Tamil Nadu it was nightmarish in a day night match…. Bengal made 167 with Yo Mahesh taking 4-23………. but star studded Tamil Nadu side was sent packing for paltry 90… Shami took 4-25 while Dinda took 3-13.  Tamilnadu batsmen were all at sea against some quality swing and pace… M Vijay hung on for long labouring 24 off 85. 

Vijay Hazare Trophy, also known as the Ranji One Day Trophy, was started in 2002–03 as a limited-over domestic competition involving state teams from the Ranji Trophy plates. It is named after the famous Indian cricketer Vijay Hazare. Tamil Nadu have won the trophy 4 times. Jharkhand won the trophy in 2011, beating Gujarat in the finals at Holkar Cricket Stadium, Indore. Bengal won it on 2011-12. Delhi are the current champions of the trophy in 2012-13, beating Assam in the finals.  Vijay Hazare made 2,192 runs in 30 Test matches with a batting average of 47.65.  He scalped 595 first-class wickets (including 20 in Tests, and Donald Bradman's wicket three times) .  In 1947-48 he made century in each innings in a Test against Australia at Adelaide and ironically at Kanpur against England  in 1951-52 became the first Indian batsman to bag a pair

With regards – S. Sampathkumar