There was pain, and then there was ecstasy. Kerala lost the final of the Ranji Trophy against Vidarbha in Nagpur – accepting the leadership of the first innings – after being one hand on the cup. Nevertheless, the team will still take it, the second best out of 32 teams in India’s Premier First Class Tournament.
The 2024-25 Ranji Trophy season of Kerala was a type of rollercaster. The tournament was the first time played in two parts, there were lots of variables. It managed to win only three of the seven league games, with two matches against Karnataka and Bengal. Eligibility was difficult and the match against Madhya Pradesh went into the wire. The quarterfinals against Jammu and Kashmir and the semi -finals against Gujarat in Ahmedabad were completely thriller – until it ran into his evergreen slavery in Vidarbha.
Kerala lost its knockout round in Vidarbha in the Ranji Trophy in the first 2017-18, when it first made the quarterfinal, and then in 2018-19, when it moved one step further, in the semi-finals. As Vidarbha, it was well prepared, tortured against Mumbai last year and lost the final. At one point, Kerala was also ready to win. But as soon as captain Sachin Baby was in his field, at the crease by Jalaj Saxena, he had a brain-fee moment, who used to take out the deep fieldingman in an attempt to go to his hundred to his hundred. This paid Kerala’s hopes of victory.
1983 wax for Kerala
Despite the near-Mis, the run in Kerala final this season is similar to India’s 1983 World Cup winning moment. From PT Usha to Im Vijayan in Athletics, Kerala has always been a sports powerhouse, with a part of heroes for years. True, the state has also produced in recent times, especially Sanju Samson, national cricketers. But this lagged one backward in the Ranji Trophy, state officials are keen to promote other sports.
The Ranji Trophy has made tremendous changes in the last 25 years, including several teams. Kerala’s first experiment with professionals began in the early 2000s, in which former India cricketers Sujith Somasunder and Sadgopan Ramesh joined the team in different sessions with Somasetti Suresh. For some reason, Kerala did not stay with it, until it finally got Arun Karthik, Amit Verma, Robin Uthappa and Shreyas Gopal in recent times. Aditya Sirvet and Baba Aparajith joined their rank this season, Kerala had three professionals in the team for the first time.
Nothing is embarrassed to achieve professionals, given that Kerala cricketers in the past, such as M. Suresh Kumar played for Railways; Even Vidarbha has two professionals-which includes Kerala-Ug Karun Nair-to play now. In particular, Nair was keen to play for his home state after being dumped by Karnataka a few years ago. But by the time the intelligent people confirmed in the Kerala Cricket Association and came back to him, Vidarbha had already signed a deal with him.
How did all this begin
Kerala’s participation in the Ranji Trophy began in the early 1950s, when it made his debut in the 1951â52 Premier Domestic Competition as Travancore-Kocin, which was in the initiative of an enthusiastic GV Raja, an enthusiastic game. The Ranji Trophy used to be a zonal knockout tournament in those days, and Kerala was defeated regularly in the first round. Only 1953â54 was an exception when it made it to another level. The team was led by brothers PM Raghavan and PM Anandan, both meet Thalassery-the part of Malabar-until 1957â58, when Travancore-Kochin was replaced by Kerala.
Both Raghavan and Anandan were the nephews of Bapu, who, according to popular learning, baked “First Christmas Cake” in India in 1883. The following generations of Membali cricketers included PMK Mohandas, PMK Raghunath and APM Gopalakrishnan, who continued the family tradition during the state.
Kerala has prestigious cricketers, such as leg-spinner KN Anantapadanbhan, off-spinner B Ramprakash, all-rounder Sunil Oasis, in the 90s, in the 90s, with Srikumar Nair, with India’s Under-19 winning team in 2000. Till then, Kerala’s best performance was making pre-witness in 1994-95. When Tinu Yohanan made the national team as the first cricketer to represent Kerala in 2001, it completely nurtured the game. This was followed by S. in 2005. Sreesanth started more popular.
Kerala made the semi -finals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in 2013 in the semi -finals of the domestic T20 tournament of India, exposed to the Indian Premier League (IPL) behind some of its young stars, which is part of the Kochi Tuskers Kerala team, in 2011, in their lone seasons, for Kerala team, after years.
Grassroots cricket
As part of their initiative to inspire the next generation cricketers, the Kerala Cricket Association (KCA) flew a batch of 45 boys of under -14 and under -16 teams in the state at the Zambhabha Stadium in Vidarbha for the finals. To bring back the underprivileged team of Kerala, he was specially blowed back to a chartered an aircraft by KCA.
On the lines of Tamil Nadu, Kerala recently launched a T20 league, a long way to popularize cricket among the football-footers of the state. The days came when Malayalis played street cricket with improvided coconut willow. Cricket academies are also spring in the mofusil cities of the state today. Coaches also play an important role in shaping the next generation cricketers, and Ama Khorasia has contributed greatly to send Kerala to the Ranji final this season.
Known to hit his massive hit during his sports days, Khorasia gained prominence among Indian fans, when he was elected ahead of Vinod Kambli for the 1999 World Cup. He played an important role in establishing the properties of grafting within this team and sometimes-dai attitude. In this season, Kerala received awards for its teamwork and clearly more than the sum of its parts.
what lies ahead
Can Kerala go one step further in the Ranji Trophy next year? Keeping the team in mind, Sanju Samson and Baba Aprarajith were for most time of the season, it seems possible to improve its performance. However, the team clearly lacks a big scoring top-order batsman like Karun Nair, and Kerala would be difficult to dominate the big teams until some youth moved the move.
Kerala also performed well to persuade Sandeep Warrior to increase Sandeep Warrier to increase its fast-bouncing unit after switching to Tamil Nadu two seasons. KCA needs to ensure that it widen its pool of the players. Eager observers of the game would know that Kerala had the same pool of about 30 players in the last decade. If the team can celebrate Kerala -born Devdutt Padikkal or Karun Nair to play in the next season, it will lead a long way to increase its possibilities and overcome the heart break.
(Anand Kochukudi is a senior journalist and columnist)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
(Tagstotransmit) Kerala Cricket (T) Ranji Trophy (T) Ranji
