Champion's Leak

While my friends watched the Champions League T20 in an ordinary pub or on TV, I won a contest and found myself not only watching the action from the players’ dressing room… but also having meals with the legends themselves. Such as breakfast with Glenn McGrath and dinner with Anil Kumble. Thanks to my rahu stars and the generosity of a certain liquor baron, I was appointed ‘Chief fan’ for the Royal Challengers Bangalore.

Donning red and gold

Imagine attending team meetings, giving them high-fives after jokes or er, knowing their kamina sides – the enormity of the experience started sinking in as I checked into a room next to Gibbs and Duminy, at a Bengaluru hotel. Next morning, I had breakfast with my heroes - Kumble, Dravid, Kallis, Boucher. I was initially edgy, but it took simple moments (such as Kumble playing with his daughter or Pravin Kumar raving about chhole-khulche of Meerut) for me to be one of them - I’d already donned the red-and-gold RCB jersey.

The tourney kickstarted, and so did the time of my life. First up, it was exciting to meet the team behind the scenes. Apart from the squad, the team bus would comprise of the coach, manager, team analyst, physio, trainer, masseur and sometimes, even the COO. While the times on field were anxious, the times off it were something I’ll report to my grandchildren: Praveen Kumar suffixes every sentence with the choicest north Indian abuses; the team is shown motivational videos (which we often see on Youtube) before a game; Kumble loves chatting on his Gmail; Ross Taylor can cook parathas and that Kallis doesn’t smile even when he’s not playing… not even on his birthday.

Games people play

Intriguingly, I got to see how some sportsmen had scored offfield. While Kallis’ stunning gori wife got all the stares, a particular hunk of the team had a PYT hanging around at practice sessions, hotel room et al. Not to forget, the lesser fortunate ones tried their best to score. One, for instance was seen flirting with the hotel receptionist several times.

The young team was also high on fun, especially of the legpulling variety. I was once audience to Pravin and Virat taking a dig at the TV media: in the middle of a conversation about how good the kulfis in Kanpur are, Kohli broke into a sensational commentary, while Pravin played the interviewee, a kulfi-seller. “Dil thaam ke baithaiye, agla item aapka dil dehla dega,” Virat went, “Malai kulfi ke saath extra toppings yukt kaju kulfi aapke poore parivaar ko achambit kar degi!” All this was, by the way, in the team bus.

Dinner with Jumbo

Though my most memorable experience would have to be the dinner at Jumbo’s place. The occasion was worthy – a combined celebration of Kumble’s and Kallis’s birthdays and of course, Diwali. Having the legendary leg-spinner I have cheered and cried in joy for all these years — show you around his house was inexplicably moving. Not many know that the former skipper is a nature lover, and this was apparent from the pictures (all self-shot) which adorned his rooms. It was thrilling to visit a special room which flaunted only his trophies – Arjuna award, the ‘perfect 10’ trophy, et al. The tête-à-tête was vibrant too: I came to know that Kumble is the new vice-chief of the Karnataka Wildlife Board. (Bet you didn’t know that!) I also stole a moment to quiz him about one mystery the world has had – why on earth couldn’t he turn the ball? He couldn’t help laughing before replying, “I didn’t want to lose my line-and-length at the cost of spin.” Case rested.

RCB’s campaign ended prematurely after two defeats. Worse, news of Dravid’s ouster from Team India was a dark cloud. (Rahul himself, after long, anxious moments of tracking cricket sites on his laptop, resigned to his room on learning the news.) The 11-day-trip cost me my job (yours truly went ahead even after his leaves weren’t approved) but as they say, ‘some things in life are priceless’.