It was the month of March and the Inter House Cricket matches were in full swing. Amar, who was in standard XII and the captain of his house cricket team (Green House) was keen to get the cup home this year. Amar joined the Indian Public School, which is an all boys boarding school in class 1 when he was just 6 years old. In the 11 years of his stay he had achieved what every student would want to and was now a School Prefect. His closest set of friends was from the Prefect body. Just when Amar thought that life could not get better for him, the saga of the cricket inter house began.
Green House had won 2 of the 3 league matches and was already through to the finals. The last league match was between Green House and Red House (considered the weakest team for the season). This league match gained immense importance because the fate of 2 teams rested on it. If Red House won the match, they would play the finals against the Green House. However if they lost then Yellow House (the favorites for the tournament) would be the second finalist.
Now, Amar was in a position to choose his opponent for the finals and was obviously keen on playing the Red House. At this point the only thing that mattered to him was winning the cup and all other things like “spirit of the game” or sportsmanship seemed secondary. Amar decided to loose the last league match on purpose, knowing little that this decision would prove to be his nemesis.
All was well in the evening but trouble started to brew till dinner. Ajay, captain of the Red House cricket team felt insulted that his team made it to the finals on the mercy of someone and Vinay, captain of the Yellow Team simply felt cheated. Both of them were very good friends of Amar but at this stage temper clouded all reason. They began to create negative sentiment about Amar and his act and by dinner all the houses (Yellow, Blue and Red) were against the Green House.
They were jeered by the rest of the school while standing outside the mess, waiting for the dinner to be laid. But the worst brunt was faced by Amar. On the Prefect’s table where he used to have dinner, his friends refused to pass him the food. They passed comments like cheater, match fixer etc. and made him feel like he had committed a murder.
Angry by the reaction that his decision got, Amar took another radical decision. He decided that he would not play the finals and claimed that his team would win the trophy without him. This decision shocked his team members but he convinced them that at this stage with so much negative sentiment against them, this was the best thing to do. The members of the Green team stood by their captain’s decision and were even more motivated to get the cup home.
On the day of the finals, only a small faction of the school could be seen supporting the Green House. Green House won the toss and elected to bat first as that was their strength. They got off to a good start with the scoreboard reading 50/0 in 10 overs. However, Red House struck some unexpected blows and the final score line read a modest 107/8 in 20 overs.
This was a modest total, which the Red House could easily achieve. During the innings break, Amar went to the pavilion and gave a motivational speech to the team, urging them to give it their all. Every run scored by the Red House was cheered and every wicket taken by the Green House was jeered. Despite the hostility and their captain not playing the players were determined and keen to get the cup home.
Some disciplined bowling, a couple of good catches and some stupid shot selection by the batsmen of the Red Team poised the match evenly at the half way stage. The score line read 65/5 in 10 overs. The match could go anyway and everyone watched with bated breath. The last recognized pair of batsmen were batting and another wicket would expose the tail.
The excitement continued till the last over when the score read 104/8 in 19 overs. The tail was batting with 4 runs needed of the last over and 2 wickets in hand. The first 2 balls went for 1 run. The third one was a wicket. 3 runs of 3 balls with 1 wicket in hand. The fourth ball was a dot and the batsman hit the fifth ball in the covers and immediately ran. They wanted to take 2 runs but a brilliant fielding effort resulted in a run out. Green House won the finals by 1 run. Amar and the rest of the Green House students rushed into the field to hug the heroes of the day. The rest of the school was stunned into silence.
The hostility against Amar and Green House continued for a week or so but then everyone forgot about it and moved on. Things began to normalize and Amar and his friends were back to their normal ways. Amar felt that poetic justice was done.
However, on introspection Amar learned 2 of the most important lessons of his life. Lesson No 1: Though it’s important to be ambitious and aim at higher goals, but the means through which those goals are also important. The seemingly right decisions catch up with you some time or the other if the motives are not right
Lesson No 2: When pushed to the wall, don’t back out. Take a stand and fight back.
