There was an air of expectancy at the Middlesex County Cricket Club where Calcutta Cavalry were gathering for their morning training session. This was no ordinary session, this was when the custodians of the team would put into action the master plan that would set them on a winning streak in IBL 2009. Project Tire Gautam, Fire Gautam was ready to be rolled out.
Jeff Buccaneer sat on a reclining chair under a lawn umbrella on the sidelines, with his two assistants, the fielding coach and a trainer squatting on the ground near him. They were going through the details of the gruelling drill that Gautam would be subjected to. It was a drill that Gautam wouldn’t survive, or so they believed. One of them even harboured the hope that it would tire him out of next year’s IBL as well.
The team was arriving in three batches due to unavailability of the big team bus. The first batch was halfway through their jogging when the second batch came in. Gautam, as usual, was expected to arrive last. The four others who were to arrive with him in the third batch would be subjected to the same training drill as Gautam. But they were expected to survive the harsh treatment because of their youth. And too bad if they didn’t. As Buccaneer put it, ‘Every cause needs a martyr’.
Full report here Mint
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