Written quickly (pardon typos and inconsistencies) and sorry it is not as colorful an email as the ones disseminated at ~2 am.
Included below are 3 events/activities that require your response. If you see your name already in the activity, you need to do nothing. You also DONT need to read this message in its entirety, just look at the items in BOLD and respond, it does has some details that obliquely will effect all of us. Whatever, I have written here all of you have read/listened to me drone on for years, so there is nothing new.
"F" is an idea a somewhat fragile idea: a willingness to go 0-14 season for the idea is a tough one, but one that is hardwired and is a core tenet. we all like it when it works, but it is hard work and individual satisfaction is differed and dispersed (across the team) and that is a challenge for our personal and team character. Results are slow to come or even manifest themselves in any measurable matrix and often dont show up on any scorecard. Imran's 8-0-31-2 is the only time he has bowled 8 straight overs in MSCL and is quite an achievement. A proud moment for all of us. Many other "Fers" have achieved some other cricketing aspirations that could not have been achieved in another setup. Whether it is opening the batting, opening the bowling, playing a certain way or whatever. F team allows us the freedom to do this while maintaining a competitive theme. Wins are so seductive, and they can be blinding. A mindless pursuit of individual accolades and wins can have a corrosive effect on the concept of F, and we as a team are better than that. We must fight for the IDEA of F, that is after all what has brought us all together.
“If you don’t fight for what you want… Don’t lament for what you lost.”
We play in this team F1, because the club exists and functions: For that contributing to off field activities is key. As individuals all of us have certain club obligations. A helpful question to self would be, how have I made this team and club better ?
As of now, as a captain I have in my mind provided ample opportunities to every member of the roster (based on availability etc). As subtlety does not always work, let me be a bit more direct: opportunity to play cricket will be somewhat tied to individuals contributions to the club. If we are looking for form, consistency, legacy, teamwork, sportsman spirit, club and team level initiative etc, we will be looking at off-field contributions. Unfortunately, this has been a dismal year for F1 in that regard: we have had some half hearted token contributions here and there. We are at the halfway mark, lets work to redeem ourselves, I am of the firm belief that BGSC cricket rises when we get our act together off the field. Every SINGLE individual in the team needs to step up in this regard.
Practice Match/Net session: Format will be explained in due course. Nitish has put together a tremendous initiative for nets devoting some time and energy in creating something that will improve cricketing at the club level. On the F1 level, there are specific things that individuals in the team are tasked to do. Getting demoralized and moping about is not our style. Giving up on the game after an over or two is also not how we do things.
With the fitness level and age factor of our team, we have to click as individuals, score a certain number of runs, bat, bowl and field a certain way. We have little latitude to veer away from team strategy. Individual performances while gratifying are important only if they are inline with team's objectives. And we ALL know all this. We as a team have drifted into I'isms a bit slowly and subtly: it is time to get back on track.
Practice Match/Nets
Saturday, July 7th
Wrentham-III
12.00 pm
Avinash Bhardwaj
Sandeep Katta
Rajiv Shah
Vivek Chaudhry
Sunny Hardik Patel
Sudhansh Gampa
Yash Sheth
Samad
Chandra
Tahaa
Snehal
Satya
Bikram
Parak
Deepak
Gundeep
Dilip Chavan
Raja Tummla
Raja Kolli
Imran Riaz
Masood Shaikh
Nafis Ahmad
Marcus Jodhan 12-1.00 pm
Nitish Bahadur 6.00 pm onward
KIDS CAMP
At the moment from F1, we have only Dilip, Deepak and Parak signed up from BGSC-F1 for kids camp. All Saturdays. We have a captains meeting tonight (7/5), our team needs a strong contingent of coaches.
Please indicate your availability.
Specific dates listed in the "Kids Camp" tab below:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZGkSrSX3i27e2TJEr0Sp-uZAVDpL6uGcC6hHqs5Pwxc/edit#gid=665865264
Captains, we need to have coaches assigned from each of your teams for the kids camp. First session starts next Thursday 7/12...
7/12 thru 8/18
Thur - 6:00 PM -7:30 PM
Sat - 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Please ensure we have same coach commitments for all Thursdays & Saturdays to maintain consistency.
We will need 4 coaches from each of our teams for Thursday and 2 from each team for Saturday.
BGSC-F1 Meeting
Grilling session and team meeting at 6.00 pm, 20 Everett Street.
Confirmed attendees:
Nitish Bahadur 6.00 pm onward
This BGSC-F1 match was tough to follow. We losing a match is par for us...Anyone playing in F team is (or should be) reconciled to an 0-14 season. The fact that we are playing together should be good enough: but sometimes we get too close to the trees- PLEASE Dont- stand back a bit and reflect, why we are playing in F1: if in doubt call me :).
Spain, Argentina, Portugal, Denmark, Japan, Mexico, Switzerland & Columbia going home is tough. Many of these players will never get a chance to redeem themselves at the WC. We are in a rosy spot.
We are going to be fine, we will likely be in playoffs and the ENTIRE BGSC-F1 roster will get us there. It would have been nice to get to the half-way mark with 4-3 rather than 3-4: this just means that we need to go 5:2 rest of the way. If we dont get there, it will be first time for me in 19 years and that is fine also.
I beg all of you to fill your July availability, it will make it easy to ensure every legitimate F1 member gets a fair shot.
In this meeting we will discuss general tactics, strategy, individual roles, individual aspiration, team objectives and how this team can make BGSC better.
