Mid Day visited the Mumbai Ranji Trophy Team's dressing room yesterday to see a chart full of Marks
Mid Day visited the Mumbai Ranji Trophy Team's dressing room yesterday to see a chart full of Marks
Successful teams work on set targets. Thirty nine-time Ranji Trophy winners, Mumbai function in a
similar pattern.
Yesterday, the defending champions won on the basis of the first innings lead to get three points against Saurashtra in their Ranji Trophy opener at the Mumbai Cricket Association's ground at the Bandra Kurla Complex.
Mumbai finished the day on 207 for two with skipper Wasim Jaffer scoring a century (103 not out) in successive innings. Rohit Sharma remained unbeaten on 74 on the fourth and final day.
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| This board in the dressing room indicates Mumbai got most things right in their Ranji match against Saurashtra. However, coach Amre was not completely satisfied. Pic/Suresh KK |
Though Mumbai started their campaign on a winning note, coach Praveen Amre had reasons to remain dissatisfied.u00a0 For, Amre has introduced a system whereby he sets specific targets for every session and players thrive to achieve them.
For every target achieved, there's a tick mark against it and a cross if players fail to get it. At the end of the match, the drawing board had two cross marks.
"That's because we lost too many wickets (three for 40 runs) on Day One of the last session. The target, therefore, was not achieved. My aim is to see all tick marks next time," Amre told MiD DAY after the match.
"Players are responding positively to this system. Each player knows his task and responsibility. It is not that these targets are fixed. They keep changing as the match progresses. Through this system, everybody is actively involved," he added.
Saurashtra return home by trainIt is a rarity for modern-day teams to travel by train. But Saurashtra's Ranji Trophy team is an exception. For, after a hectic Ranji Trophy opener against Mumbai, the team was made to board the Saurashtra Mail from Mumbai Central yesterday. And that too in a Three Tier AC compartment.
Normally, if teams don't fly, they settle for Second AC. And when a MiD DAY lensman tried clicking pictures, some team members got offended and even summoned a railway official.
It is learnt that the BCCI has advised state associations to travel by air if the journey is more than six hours. And, it takes 13 hours to reach Rajkot by train.
u00a0
It is also learnt that the team had travelled by train to Mumbai for the match. One wonders how the Saurashtra Cricket Association is utilising the annual subsidy which they got from the BCCI.
