Bold Diaries: RCB kick off the session with football

Football before a game of cricket is a debatable topic. The current generation might believe in having a bit of fun before the intense and demanding affairs of a cricket match, but some of the former cricketers have their doubts, most of which arise from the fact that an injury is always around the corner when cricketers indulge in football ahead of the game.

Shanker Basu, the strength and conditioning coach at RCB, belongs to that faction which is not very fond of ‘kicking off’ the practice session with a bigger ball. “Let me put it on record here, I hate football for cricketers. It’s highly injurious for cricketers. I can only see risks, don’t see any rewards. Even in the Indian team, we cut football totally, but once in a while, I did allow the children to play. Every year, they play this game my heart is in my mouth.”

Given a choice to them, they will play soccer every day. So competitive, so thrilled, the child enthusiasm comes out. The energy is at a different level (when they play football). So, there is a little bit of reward from here but I can only see the risk,” said Basu.

But Basu understands the importance of tradition that has been set over the years. The tradition of having a football match between the ‘Cool Cats’ and ‘Hot Dogs’ has been there for 6-7 years now. Every season, the first day when the full squad turns up for the practice, this is how they get things going.

So the strength and conditioning coach organized give in to the desire of the players and carefully curated two teams, comprising team members and support staff. And Quite understandably, the two sides were led by Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers.

With the rules modified to make things interesting (as if they already were not), no goalkeeper, and a ‘D’ like the ones we see in Hockey, team physio Evan Speechly, a keen follower of football, assumed referee duties. For those who thought Evan was an easy-going person, the surprise came in two cards that he gave - a red card to the red-hot Dale Steyn and a yellow one to not so mellow Mohammed Siraj during the game.

With the tournament just days away now, the whole squad has started practicing together after having started in batches during the beginning. A football session was a reminder that the bonhomie between the players is tight as ever.

P.S. In the interest of curiosity, the result of the game is not being revealed. And there were no injuries during the game.