Holiday hook

What sets this club apart is the profile of the 45-odd players. When they aren’t spinning googlies,Ishan Maini is an analyst for Goldman Sachs,Saurav Anand heads sales and marketing at Jindal Stainless,and Parag Khanna is a senior consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers. There are also creative types from media and advertising,as well as jewellery and graphic designers. “It’s about cricket,but it’s also about socialising with people we wouldn’t have met otherwise,” says Akriti Vora,25,the lone woman who is searching for players to form an “all-girl team”.

The club started in February when Aditya Oberoi,27,who is an official with for the organising committee of the Commonwealth Games,returned home to Delhi after a couple of years in Dallas ,US . A few months before that,his childhood friend Harsh Taneja,26,had quit his job with recession-hit Merrill Lynch in New York . “Together,we decided to connect with old friends and create a platform for a cross-section of Delhiites,” says Oberoi. In Delhi,such social clubs usually revolve around food and partying — like the Sushi and Sake Club or the Delhi Dinner Circle. “We wanted fun and fitness to be the pivot. Cricket was the obvious choice,” adds Oberoi.

The first game was held in a farmhouse at Vasant Kunj with “only 10 players,making two teams”. Today,DCS attracts new faces,from entrepreneurs to an odd student. Though “all ages are welcome”,the current age group is between 17 and 35. “There are no entry charges,” says Oberoi. Their only problem is finding the right venue. “On some days,we have to drive from one field to another to find a free ground,” says Taneja.

Most members say DCS offers an excuse to get office stress off their shoulders,while for people like the 27-year-old entrepreneur Alankrit Bhardwaj,DCS marks a return to a game that he hadn’t played since school. Taneja says that even if he loses a game,he drives home with a smile. “Nowhere else could I have met a guy like the 22-year-old Shrey Agarwal who owns a gaming company,worlds away from my finance sector,” he says. And Bhatia,who is to get married in February,has ordered his fiancee’s ornaments from “a jeweller I met on the Sunday cricket field.” “Fitness and friendship,isn’t that what cricket is about?” asks Oberoi.

Contact: delhicricketsundays@ gmail.com