Each team playing in the Mom Dad FE Cricket League, held on February 1, was like a family in its composition. “One senior citizen, one woman and a kid,” an organiser reminded the captains of two teams of the requirements of the playing XI as they handed the team lists to the umpires at the toss in a league match.

The day-long T10 tournament, held at the FE Block playground in association with The Telegraph Salt Lake, was inclusive in spirit. “A team’s 14-member contingent has to include four foreign players (meaning block outsiders), two senior citizens, two women and two kids aged between 12 and 16 years. Of the 10 overs each side bats, one pair plays two overs before making way for the next. Even if there is a dismissal, instead of a batter leaving the field, five runs are deducted from the total. Similarly, every fielder has to bowl one over. This way everyone gets to bat and bowl. Otherwise, only the best batters and bowlers hog the action,” explained Rajiv Changoiwal, the convenor of the tournament.

There were five teams, which were to play each other in a round-robin league. The table toppers would reach the final.

Two couples, one in same shirt and another in opposing camps. Ankit and Dribyani Bansal of Bandhan Royals in front with Uttam (captain, FE Challengers) and Honey Gupta (Birla Warriors) at the back. "Last year, we were in the same team and came runners-up. This year, I did not bid for her, thinking let one of us come back with the Cup," said Uttam. Sadly for them, neither team won

The auction

The ball started rolling a week before the tournament’s first ball was bowled when the owners and captains gathered at the community hall for the players’ auction.

“From registration to the final presentation, everything happened online,” Shailendra Singh, another organiser, pointed out.

With Rs 1 crore in notional money in each team’s purse, they set off to bid. “All the owners are from our block and pooled in Rs 30,000 each for the tournament’s expenditure. This was the third year of the tournament and the owners had retained their captains,” he said.

A maximum of two players could be retained. The first retention meant a reduction of Rs 10 lakh from the notional kitty while the second player cost another Rs 15 lakh to retain. “All players had prepared a video presentation on their skills, based on which the bidding took place,” Singh added.

Not everyone could prepare one. Suresh Gupta, the tournament’s oldest player, was coaxed by the organisers to participate on his way home after morning walk. “We were having trouble filling up our quota of senior citizens. I recorded his video from my verandah as soon as he agreed to play,” Changoiwal laughed.

While the base price of every player was Rs 20,000, the highest bid — close to Rs 30 lakh — was made by Gold’s Gym Friends (GGF) for Sarthak Kapur.

To keep his own participation beyond scrutiny, Changoiwal arranged his selection not through bidding but through a lottery, ending up with FE Challengers.

Day of reckoning

With each team having to play four matches in the league stage, play started at 8.30am.

Food was being cooked live and served from a counter while music played at full blast.

Working the DJ’s console was Poojit Dhawan. The 26-year-old, who is trained to fly aeroplanes, also takes up gigs professionally in Mumbai. “Pilot is the DJ; sky is the dance floor. That’s my tagline,” smiled the youth, who calls himself DJ Sniper, stationed behind a Pioneer console.

Close by, Gupta was taking a breather after having played a match. “When I was 25, I used to play cricket. That was 50 years back. Even now, I walk and swim regularly,” he said proudly. “Sureshji won two prizes in our block sports meet recently, one in running and another in hitting the wicket,” pointed out Anuradha Roy, who had come over to cheer her neighbours.

One of them, Sujata Guha, was fielding on the boundary line. The 56-year-old was taking part in the tournament for the third year. “We have been practising for about 10 days from 7.30am to 9am. I asked our domestic help to come late on those days,” said the lady with FE Challengers, who gained a reputation for economic bowling.

Among the women, probably the most excited to participate was Honey Gupta. “Girls are getting hit for 30-35 runs. My last over cost only 15 runs,” said the 37-year-old, who has been playing cricket since childhood. “It’s a do-or-die match for us. If we win, we will play in the final,” said the Birla Warriors player, keeping an eye on the electronic score board, which showed 96 as the target.

Indeed, the last two league matches turned out to be semi-finals. “Bandhan Royals (BR) is already in the finals. If BW wins, we will get knocked out,” explained Kapur of GGF, watching the on-field action between BW and BR. His worries were unfounded as BR, batting first, set a target of 96 runs and won by 40 runs.

All the individual prize winners pose together with their winnings

Final countdown

GGF took the field next against FE Challengers, to decide which team gets to face BR in the final, with the fate of BW involved as well.

FE Challengers could cobble up only 62 for 8 in their 10 overs, thanks to tight bowling by Anand Choraria (2/1), Manish (0/1) and Nilesh (4/1). Amit Agarwal’s knock of 24 off five balls ended up in a losing cause. Bolstered by solid knocks by Rajarshi Chakraborty (25 runs off 9 balls) and captain Chirag Patwari (24 off 10), GGF reached the target in six overs but the match went on as per tournament rules, taking them to 121 in 10 overs.

Endgame

In the final, GGF won the toss and elected to bowl. Opener Bittu Dey struck terror in the GGF camp, hitting Srikant Agarwal for successive sixes in his first five balls, with a boundary in between. “Inko IPL mein khilao. Yeh Mom-Dad cricket mein kya kar raha hai!” a spectator shouted. “Single roko,” was the united mission on the last ball, as all the fielders closed in. Bittu ended with 30 in the first over. Such was the bowling side’s relief to have the other opener, Prabhakar Shukla, face that even when he hit the first shot to the fence, someone shouted “Do run bnach gaya”, acknowledging Bittu’s six-hitting prowess.

But Chirag’s astute field-placing and tight bowling did not let Prabhakar change ends, or the batters to add more than 10 runs. Rajarshi Chakraborty’s third over allowed only one run, slamming a break on the opening flourish. Harsh Atal managed to hit three sixes in the next over, but refused singles on the other balls to protect his non-striker Kanav Mathran. As the next pair Anshul and Dribyani walked out, a teammate shouted: “Bhabhi, don’t run unless Anshul asks you.” Dribyani did run off the last ball of the over to let Anshul retain strike but got run out and sought a runner for the rest of her stay.

Another tight over by Sarthak with a dismissal stunted the run chase further. Ankit was feasting on Chandana Rahman’s loopy deliveries till he skied one. Though he got a reprieve on the boundary line, that seemed to upset their scoring rhythm which was further dented by a runout.

In the last over, Manish Drolia bowled a tight spell yielding nothing, barring a fifth ball in which he strayed on the off side and got hit for a six. BR ended up posting 105 for 5.

The chase saw a moment to cherish for women in cricket with Dribyani bowling to Chandana, though it lasted just a ball with a single being taken. Srikant came on strike and spoilt Dribyani’s bowling figures. Harsh’s off-spinners soon had Sarthak fumbling.

At the end of nine overs, GGR had posted 90 on the scoreboard, leaving 16 to chase in the last over.

With crafty backing up from the non-striker Nilesh Chopra, Aman Baid took a quick single off Prabhakar’s first ball. A sixer, a dot and a wide kept the match in balance when a terrible slip-up at long-off cost BR three extra runs, reducing the ask to just two runs off the last ball. Aman pushed the ball to long-on and ran but the duo tried to take a second despite the ball being already in flight to the bowler, who crashed the stumps. Instead of a tie and a super over, it was match and tournament to BR.

“It was my call to take the second. Bittu would have come in the super over and smashed us for six sixes anyway. So I wanted to go for the win. I have no regrets,” Chopra, the non-striker, later told The Telegraph Salt Lake.

Ankit Bansal, the BR owner, and his wife Dribyani had a train to catch at 11.30pm. “We plan to win the Cup and rush to the station. She is lucky for me,” Ankit had told The Telegraph Salt Lake before the final. And that is exactly how it panned out, with the couple posing for the team photo before heading for Howrah.

“The players are so happy that though many were too tired to attend office the next day, they are already urging us to start planning another tournament,” Changoiwal said.

Write to saltlake@abp.in