How Hyderabad dropped their blues

This New Year in Uppal,the two sides meet again,as Elite division teams. One is the defending champion,with Rajasthan pulling off a real life Cinderella story last season,and the other is currently riding the highest wave in years,with Hyderabad qualifying for the premier league by topping the Plate charts. And the Hyderabad story a real life underdog beating the odds is a compelling one.

Hyderabad has seen several twists and turns,controversies and bizzare incidents,in their tedious road back to the top after a gap of two years. And hard as it may seem to believe,the first step to success was triggered on the very day they were humiliated by their upcoming quarterfinalists. This time around,their new coach Sunil Joshi is confident of reversing the result in the grudge game.

Joshi has left his imprint on a squad that believed in him blindly,quite literally. The former India and Karnataka left-arm spinner introduced the team to blindfold games,where two players constantly teamed up for obstacle running,with one instructing and the other following. As part of a team building op,he wanted everyone to have blind trust in each other. The players will vouch for the fact that it opened their eyes.

This radically different coach had several such tricks up his sleeve,such as introducing his team to mental conditioning coach Venkatadri via Skype,who addressed the men on the field during the Plate semis against Vidarbha in Nagpur while sitting in his Bangalore clinic. It makes for great stories now,but none of it would have been possible if Manoj Prabhakar didnt turn down the post. Once they did sign Joshi,who turned down offers from Baroda and Andhra,he was told that he had could not be player coach. That,as Joshi says,wasnt according to the plan.

I still crave to play,my playing career isnt over yet, laughs Joshi. But its now more about my coaching career. Its great that I have got off to a good start. I had a few offers,but I somehow knew Hyderabad is the team I could work with best.

Life experiences

So why did he choose a struggling Plate side? The challenge,apparently. I know what it feels like to play in Plate,Ive done it with Karnataka. I also know what it takes to climb out of it. So when this offer came along,I knew I could help by sharing my experiences,give them examples from my life, says Joshi,who is a qualified NCA Level III and ECB Level II qualified coach. There were times when things didnt go right,and I was thinking Give me the ball,let me show you how to do it,but I guess I too learnt to teach without bowling in the middle.

Arshad Ayub,secretary of the Hyderabad Cricket Association says that despite the lows,he never lost his faith in his side. Being in the Plate group haunted us for a long time. There was a lot of knee-jerk talk for getting professionals from outside to play for us, he says. And there were many who were interested too. But we resisted it. Im glad we had enough confidence in our boys, Ayub adds. And the home boys delivered.

Left-arm spinner Lalit Mohan has three six wicket hauls in his 23 wickets,while wicketkeeper Ibrahim Khaleel created a world record of 14 dismissals in a match against Assam. Opener Akshat Reddy has three centuries,while Syed Ahmed Qadri has two and a 99. BP Sandeep,T Suman and Arjun Yadav have so far scored one each.

As a coach I am a happy man, says Joshi. But the credit must go to the entire support staff. To drive the point home,it must be noted that without their most famous son,VVS Laxman,it must have taken a team effort.

Laxman,despite not being able to play in any games due to international commitments and a bad back,made it a point to travel to Goa to be with his team as they took on the home side. He is said to have lent his bat and gloves to players to bring in good luck. It has to be said that Hyderabad,however,made their own luck. And against Rajasthan on January 2,they would have come a full circle.