Karnataka Cricket Celebrates its Jubilant Heroes

File Photo: Karnataka team celebrate during their victorius Ranji Trophy 2013/14 season

© PTI

Football may be the flavour of the season, but it is cricket that really makes this country's heart beat faster. It has been a great year for Karnataka's cricket team - which won the Ranji, Irani and Vijay Hazare trophies. Karnataka's chief minister has announced an award of one crore rupees to the victorious team. Current and past players of the state were felicitated this weekend by the Karnataka State Cricket Association which honoured all its Ranji winning teams over the decades.

Karnataka has always been a cricketing force to reckon with - and they certainly got their act together this year. The team was able to bring home the Ranji Trophy after a gap of 15 years. Five players in the team were making their debut, but the squad still managed to learn from past experience.

Karnataka's Ranji team captain, Vinay Kumar said, "My teammates have been amazing throughout the season. The team has been doing well last 4,5 years but unfortunately we just missed out the bit where we could make it big...Losing the Mysore game to Mumbai really hurt us badly. After that, before this season we all sat together and discussed what was going wrong and where we were lacking and we all came to one point...taking that extra bit of responsibility was needed in our team."

KSCA secretary and former player, Brijesh Patel, said, "The dominance of Karnataka Ranji Trophy team this year was evident when our boys scored 5, 306 runs and captured 179 wickets in the Ranji Trophy this season which is a record for this state in one season. We had 15 hundreds and 7 five wicket hauls in the 12 matches our state team played."

It was not just the current, young batch that was felicitated. Tribute was paid to successful Ranji teams from past decades, starting with the 1973-74 team which first won the trophy for Karnataka over 40 years ago.

One of the members of that team, spinner E. A. S. Prasanna  member said,"Four great players- Chandra (B S Chandrashekhar), Brijesh, G.R. Vishanath, S.M.H. Kirmani - and the rest of them have played such an important role that one cannot say that the entire 73-74 winning the trophy was due to these four illustrious and magnificent players."

Three current Karnataka players have played for India - Vinay Kumar, Robin Uthappa and Stuart Binny - and while wearing the national colours is still seen as the crowning glory for an Indian player - this event was a reminder of the need to celebrate and reward success in domestic cricket as well.