Collage Sports won both the Lala Raghubir cricket tournament and Goswami Ganesh Dutt Memorial cricket tournament on consecutive days over the weekend. They defeated Air India on Saturday,while narrowly emerging victorious over Sonnet Cricket Club in the GG Dutt Memorial final on Sunday. Coaching and managing the side to an unprecedented trophy double,Rajbir Singh became the first coach in Collage Sportss history to achieve this feat. It was a hectic weekend to say the least,but my boys made me really proud, says Singh,unable to conceal his happiness. While the modern-day game has left most coaches gasping for breath in an attempt to keep pace with its constantly evolving nature,Singh likes keeping things simple. I prefer the traditional form of coaching. Player management plays the most important role in my book. I constantly keep my players motivation levels high. This is my greatest weapon. It is the secret to my success, he says. Innovating tooNot far behind though on innovating,Singh promoted Pradeep Sangwan up the order to open the innings. Sangwan,an upcoming prospect and a regular member of Delhi Daredevils squad in the IPL,rose to the occasion immediately. He batted beautifully in the semi-final where his 84 runs won us the match. I like to constantly innovate, he says,adding But we always keep it simple. There is no point in complicating things. Having been with Collage Sports for the last 16 years,Singh believes things have changed radically in his tenure with the club. But he feels that his job will be well and truly done when his players make a bigger impression with the state and national selectors. Having been league champions for two years in a row,Collage have also made inroads into ONGCs stronghold at the club level in the Capital. We have won the double. We have defeated ONGC in six out of the last eight meetings. By winning the crucial tournaments,we are by far the club to reckon with here, he says. But with no players in the Ranji camp bar Sangwan,Singh believes that the fruits of his labour are yet to be seen. The selectors dont care about performances. They just care about money. I do hope that they see what our club has achieved. Only when my players make a national impact,which I believe they are capable of doing,will I be completely satisfied, concludes the winning coach. Brief scores: Sonnet Cricket Club 287/5 in 40 overs (Rahul Diwan 100,Yashpal Singh 76,Gaurav Kochar 58; Mahesh Rawat 1/33); Collage Sports 290/6 in 38.4 overs (Mahesh Rawat 96,Kamal Baniwal 74; Yashpal Singh 2/19)
