ALL members of the Bahrain cricket team gathered around Prachur Kumar Shukla, the bowling coach, listening attentively as he explained the coronavirus safety protocols they had to observe during their short airline hop from the kingdom to Oman.
The national squad is due to participate in the global qualifiers later this month for the ICC Men’s T20 Cricket World Cup, scheduled for an October start this year. The team will leave for Oman tonight.
Minutes earlier, a capping ceremony, organised by the Bahrain Cricket Federation (BCF) at the Gulf Hotel, had just concluded. In a departure from tradition, the players, already clad in their newly minted kits, were handed ties instead of caps – the ties represent Bahrain’s national colours with the BCF logo emblazoned on them.
During the ceremony, BCF president Hatim Dadabai addressed the assemblage of players and board officials, reminding everyone of the “difficult journey” they had experienced together to get to this point.
“But we have made it here,” he exclaimed, to generous applause from the audience. “Here” refers to the tremendous gains made by the Bahrain team, a collection of weekend hopefuls with day jobs, who are now just one rung away from climbing the ladder to global exposure on the biggest T20 stage: the World Cup.
All this had been made possible due to the support and patronage, Dadabai said, of Supreme Council for Youth and Sport first deputy chairman, General Sports Authority chairman and Bahrain Olympic Committee president Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
“That is why,” Dadabai reminded the players, “you must remember that, because you will be wearing Bahrain colours, you must adhere to the Bahraini qualities of being humble and kind and respectful, on and off the field. And also remember: we will only fail if we stop trying.”
Afterwards, as the players mingled for a series of group photographs, Danny Arsene Pereira, the team physio, explained how getting amateur cricketers tournament-fit in less than three months had been a daunting challenge.
Pereira, an experienced physiotherapist with over 17 years of experience, including a decade with the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru, India, said his task was made even more difficult because the demands of the players’ day jobs left most exhausted and unable to get into the frame of mind to train.
“But all credit to them,” he said. “They battled through the exhaustion and their busy schedules to surprise me with their focus and commitment. They followed their diet plans and trained harder than I would have thought possible. I would say that is the hallmark of a champion team. With this kind of approach and mind-set, they can beat anyone they want.”
Mirza Azeem-ul-Haque, the national coach, agreed with that assessment. “I think, on their day, this team could beat anyone,” he said. “There are some seriously good players in this side: Sarfraz Ali, the captain, is one. Muhammad Younis, the opener, is another. We have good, committed bowlers who can deliver the goods.”
Meanwhile, Shukla was just wrapping up his talk with the players, who still stood to attention around him. “These safety measures are for your own protection and for those around you as well,” he stressed, referring to the Covid safety protocols that needed to be followed for the airline journey. The talk was made necessary because the final preparations for the tournament had been dealt a major blow: Aashish Kapoor, the highly-respected head coach, had been diagnosed with Covid-19 and was now in quarantine, meaning he would only be able to join the team once he had served out his isolation period and returned a negative test.
“Keeping healthy is half the battle as you head into the tournament,” Shukla stressed. “The other half … well, I know you will do that well!”
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