08:49 PM, 13 May 2018

36, College Street

Sydney

Australia

 
Ever since I came back  to my hotel after my visit to the spectacular Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG), the urge in me to blog about my day’s experience is more like the kid who just can’t wait to go to the playground to play with his newly purchased Cricket Bat.

What a sight that was to watch young Manav Moitra dazzle in his all-day-long innings at the SCG today. You beauty! Backed by Manav’s splendid Century on Day-5 of the final test match, India Ranji International (IRI) recorded a prominent victory against the formidable Australian Young Turks (AYT) to bag this year’s ICC Emerging Test Championship Title.

Three weeks short of his 18^th Birthday, Manav has showed a lot of promise to be an opulent batsman at the highest level. It was just a few months ago that he cracked a Triple-Ton against Baroda in Ahmedabad. Despite the fact that it was intense Baroda’s bowling attack led by the well acclaimed national team members that had tested him thoroughly, there were always questions whether Manav will be able to deliver at this year’s ICC Emerging Test Championship Tournament in Australia.

Now this is turning out to be a praiseworthy result out of that astute initiative that Sachin Tendulkar had kick started few years ago.  Sachin then, with a well laid out vision for the betterment of Indian Cricket fought all the way through the hierarchies of BCCI and ICC to sail smooth with the idea of ICC Emerging Test Championship Tournament.

Sachin’s efforts to revamp Indian Batting and the team’s approach towards Overseas Test Cricket have been commendable in this regard. There were quite a few obstacles to bring about this change, one must admit, but I am sure many will agree that it was Sachin’s conviction that has reaped the benefits. Manav this year and speedster ‘Karnataka-MagLev’ Nawaz Akram from the last year’s edition of ICC Emerging Test Championship Tournament have been best of the picks thus far for India.

Coming back to Manav’s innings on the 5^th day on a fast-paced seaming track, it was his ability to maneuver his approach against short-pitched deliveries that made my day, luminous exhibition of dexterity! Forasmuch as we witnessed India’s December 2013 Wanderer’s Test against the mighty South Africans, it seems that the Indian Batsmen have demystified the Art-Of-Leaving. And Manav seems to have learnt a lot out of that match’s video which has now become ‘Lesson Number 1’ at all the Coaching Centers across the nation.

ICC Emerging Test Championship Tournament which is typically scheduled to happen once every year over and top of domestic tournaments such as Ranji and Duleep Trophy, has opened up a huge window of opportunity to fine tune imminent Cricketers and launch them all-fit-and-technically-strong to compete at the highest level. 

The way IRI Board have joined hands with the Australian, English and South African Domestic Cricket Boards to setup a platform for breeding quality cricketers is a dream-come-true for all those who have set Test Cricket as the highly-prioritized version of the game. The fact that the tournament is held in countries like Australia, England and South Africa makes it extremely combative in nature thus ensuring eminence as the best end result.

Not a single soul from the Cricketing Fraternity today forgets to mention Sachin’s role in this amazing amalgamation of International Cricketing boards to bring the best out of the younger lot.  I was simply not surprised, none should be for that matter, when Manav mentioned a “Thank You Sachin” note during his speech soon after collecting ‘Best Batsman of the Tournament Award’.

As we have always loved to believe, heroism is not just about battling out the odds to achieve exemplary excellence. Heroism does come to a full circle when a Hero himself paves the way for a new set of upcoming Heroes. It was Virat Kohli then and Manav Moitra today.

And I don’t think I need to mention here once again which Hero it was who started the trend.