A Conversation with Vikram Chakravarthy

Vikram Chakravarthy, considered to be one of the most technically correct batsmen in MCC, has played most of his cricket with the talented Wildcats. Prior to 2005, he had two championships under his belt and played a monumental innings in the finals to get his third. He stroked a match winning 139(*) while chasing a huge target of 306 in 50 overs, against a spirited, fast, disciplined and talented Pak Gymkhana bowling attack. Vikram spoke with Jaggi Nadig after the game.

Your immediate thoughts after the game. It is an awesome feeling. It was a great game, very exciting and by God’s grace, we were able to defeat Pak Gymkhana, the toughest opponents in the league. I had good support from Nikhil and Satish. We won the game with 5 balls to spare against a tough team and that’s what makes this victory sweet.

About the momentum going in to the game We beat the Challengers in the Semi-Finals and that boosted our confidence. We have a good batting side and played to our potential.

About the dropped catches. Dropped catches are part of the game, but, we were able to take advantage of it.

Last 5 overs and 45+ runs to go, what was the strategy. We treated it as a 20 over game and a couple of big hits and were going to be back in the game. I was lucky to get some hits of Farman, who typically is very consistent.

Where were you born/brought up? I was born in Chennai India and brought up there.

What do you do for a living? I am a project lead in offshore IT related services for a Financial Industry.

How long have you played cricket? For about 28 years, right from the age of 5 yrs.

What is your favorite cricketing memory? Scoring a first century when I was in my 8'th grade for a school game.

What is your worst cricket memory? Actually all have been pleasant ones and I try to take things as positive on anything worse happenning to me in cricket.

Who is your favorite international player? Batting Sachin and Gilchrist and bowling Akram and McGrath

Who is your favorite MCC player? I admire quite a lot of cricketers in many aspects and quite a few from all teams ranging from Meadows, Pak Gymkhana, Challengers, Kutis and ofcourse Wildcats. I cannot name just one but to name a few Shahid Munir, Tushar Mehta, Kiran Kambhambatti, Sohail,Ajit Ramasami and Satish Reddy, Khera brothers, Dr. Akber Khan, Tariq Usmani, Naveed, Krishna Meluvittil & many more. I draw inspiration from senior cricketers like Masroor, Khalid Butt, Tehsin, Yousef Ahmed, Tariq Ahmad, Humayun and the eversmiling Margoob bhai.

What are your hobbies outside cricket? Listening to music, dancing and socializing with my pals.

Favorite Movie? Swades, Munna Bhai MBBS, Sixth sense.

Few words about your family? I get the 100% energy from my wife Anita who encourages me a lot and comes to every game to cheer me and the team. I attribute all the big scores that I have to her ;-) My other half of the family are in India and I miss them quite a bit. I make it up somehow by having close ties with my friends in chicago and socializing there with them.

Shahid Munir: A Profile by Zafer Hameed

With a run-up as graceful as a cheetah going for a kill, Shahid Munir comes in to bowl, accelerates and releases his thunder-balls, with the speed of greased lightening. The batsman, at the receiving end, lunges forward to defend, but the ball has already whizzed past him, swinging into the hands of the wicket-keeper. Whew! Lucky to survive. The next delivery could possibly be an in-swinging yorker, to which the batsman is a trifle late, reading and reacting, and finds the wickets flattened.

Shahid Munir is one of the quickest bowlers in the Midwest Cricket Conference. He is not just a ‘quickie’ who can bowl. He swings the ball both ways, to keep the batsman guessing. Shahid stupefies batsmen with ‘toe-crunching’ yorkers and well disguised ‘slower ones’. For the 2005 Season, Shahid is the #3 bowler in the Midwest Cricket Conference with 34 wickets, at 4.36 runs per over, reserving his best for Wildcats, 5 for 36 off 8 overs!

As a batsman, Shahid has all the strokes in the book and some more. Blessed with a good eye, balance and timing, he makes stroke-play so easy and effortless, like the great Viv Richards. Shahid seemingly caresses the ball, on its way to the boundary. He relishes quick bowling – the short- pitched stuff that he pulls and hooks for fours and sixes. The fuller length ones are driven in the ‘vee’, through extra-cover, long-on, long-off. Shahid is essentially a classic batsman, who nudges and strokes the ball to pierce the field. Shahid steals sharp singles, converts singles to twos and twos into threes. For the 2005 Season, Shahid is the #8 batsman amassing 435 runs, with one fifty and one century - reserving his highest knock for Book Club - 112 with five fours and ten sixes!

Shahid is a complete cricketer. – batsman, bowler, fielder and Team player. Though he started his career as an opening batsman and opening bowler, for Pak Gymkhana, Shahid bowls first or second change and bats at 4, 5, 6 or 7. Again, he paces his inning based on the need of the Team. No wonder, Pak Gymkhana won the 20/20 Night Cricket Tournament Championships for 2004 and 2005 and are the favorites going into the Division I Finals, against the Wildcats, Sunday, October 16, 2005.

Shahid, the person, is shy and unassuming. Born in Sialkot, Pakistan, Shahid played for Punjab University, and earned his MBA degree as well. He enjoys going out with friends, movies and music – Punjabi Bhangda, Qawali – Ibrar-Ul-Haq and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Shahid was the only player in the Midwest Cricket Conference to be selected for the US Team to tour Canada in 2005

Written by Zafer Hameed, Elgin CC (Please send your comments to zafer@midwestcricket.org)

Spotlight on Pak Gymkhana's Centurion Hasan Shah

Hasan Shah, an elegant right hander, has played most of his cricket for Pak Gymkhana in the US. Back home in Lahore, he has played for the Pakistan Under- 19 team. He has fond memories of playing with international stars like Mazad Khan, Rameez Raja, Mansoor Elahi and most importantly, Wasim Akram. He was twice selected to the US national cricket team and has attended training camps in Houston and California. He also played Pro-cricket in 2004 for the Chicago Tornadoes.

Hasan, scored a brilliant century in the championship game and shared a 250 run partnership with Shahid Munir. He spoke with Jaggi Nadig a few weeks after the game.

Your thoughts about the game? A month after the finals, it still hurts. We put up a good total on board and were very confident of defending it. Catches win matches, unfortunately, we dropped too many catches and the Wildcats took full advantage of it.

Your brilliant century and the record breaking partnership with Shahid Munir? Shahid is a brilliant cricketer and is a fantastic athlete. We had lost 4 wickets for 50 odd runs and it was very important for both of us to stick on. We encouraged each other and kept rotating the strike initially, taking very few chances. Once, we had settled in, we took a few risks and it paid off.

What was the strategy during the two day break? We have a bunch of very good bowlers and were happy about the break. It gave our bowlers some rest. Also, Wildcats needed more than 9 runs per over and with our bowling attack, we still were quite confident. Unfortunately, we didn’t learn from mistakes and dropped a few more catches. The Wildcats are a talented bunch and made us pay for the mistakes. I also want to add that the Wildcats are a very good, talented and a friendly team. They play hard. We both had good crowd support and that’s very good for the game. We hope that more people turn up for future games.

Where were you born/brought up? I was born in Lahore, Pakistan and migrated to the US in 1987.

What do you do for a living? Self Employed.

How long have you played cricket? Since I have been a kid

What is your favorite cricketing memory? Hitting three sixes in one over of Abdul Qadir and leading my school cricket team (Divisional Public High School) to a famous victory against a visiting English team from Brighton College.

What is your worst cricket memory? I get disappointed when I don’t make runs. Losing in the championship game was a big disappointment.

Who is your favorite international player? Imran Khan

Who is your favorite MCC player? There are a lot of cricketers from MCC that I like- Bakshi, Rashid Khan, Farman, Sanjay Barretto and many more.

What are your hobbies outside cricket? Going to the gym, reading cricket magazines

Favorite Movie? Legend of the Fall

Few words about your family? My entire family is back in Lahore and I miss them everyday, especially my two daughters.

Match Report: Div I 2005: Finals: Pak Gymkhana vs Wildcats

On Sunday the 16th of October, at Community Park in Hanover Park, Pak Gymkhana and Wildcats Cricket Club played the last game of the 2005 season, for the Div I Championship.

Wildcats won the toss and elected to field. Pak Gymkhana was soon in trouble – 50 for 4 in 12 overs. The Wildcats team and their cheer-leaders were ecstatic and the Pak Gymkhana team and supporters were gloomy. Pak Gymkhana desperately needed some one to rise to the occasion and save them from imminent disaster. Shahid Munir and Hassan Shah did just that. At first, Shahid was content to defend and rotate the strike, while Hassan pushed the score with an occasional four. Later, Shahid accelerated and overtook Hassan Shah with a flurry of fours and sixes. He plundered 19 runs off an over of Balaji. With the score reading 281 in the 35th over, Shahid Munir was run out having scored a magnificent 133. Hassan Shah soon followed, after scoring 103 runs. The other Pak Gymkhana batsmen did not capitalize on the foundation laid by the 231 runs partnership of Shahid and Hassan. The Pak Gymkhana innings ended at 306 runs in 47.1 overs. Nikhil Javeri was the pick of the Wildcats bowlers with 4 for 46 off 9.1 overs. Satish Reddy and Sanjay Barreto chipped in with 2 wickets each and Krishna Kurup had one.

Facing a daunting total, Wildcats started cautiously. Eschewing risks, the batsmen kept the score-board ticking. Romeen Lavani was out early for 3. Satyapal Singh joined Sanjay Baretto to stabilize the innings, but did not last long, scoring only 16. Vikram Chakravarthy joined Sanjay and held the innings together. While Vikram rotated the strike, Sanjay pushed the score, till he was out after scoring 29 runs. Nikhil joined the steadfast Vikram and they pushed the score steadily. Nikhil was out after scoring 27 runs. Satish joined Vikram, who had opened up and started playing his shots. With the game tentatively poised at 260 for 5 in 45 overs, the game was called off due to bad light and was to be continued on Tuesday, October 18, 2005.
Needing 47 runs off 5 overs, with 5 wickets in hand, Vikram and Satish resumed their innings Tuesday, and continued merrily along. They scored 8 off Shahid’s first over, in singles and twos. In the next over of Farman Khan, who had bowled magnificently and had contained the Wildcats in his previous spell, they plundered 19 runs off him and cruised to victory in the remaining 2.1 overs without losing a wicket. Man of the Match, Vikram scored a magnificent 139 not out and Satish, an unbeaten 53.

This was certainly one of the best finals ever played in the history of Midwest Cricket Conference – 3 centuries, 613 runs scored, close, exciting match played in good spirits by both sides, with warm weather, drama, fireworks, cheer-leading, more than 300 spectators, community support, live running commentary and fund raising for Earthquake Relief. What else could one have asked for?

Written By: Zafer Hameed, Elgin CC (You may send your comments to zafer@midwestcricket.org)