Vidarbha has reaped the success for work done at grassroots level

“So Vidarbha has a Ranji Trophy team?”

Prashant Vaidya still remembers that question from an India cricketer, when he was picked in the national team for the first time.

Nearly three decades later, everyone knows Vidarbha has not just a Ranji Trophy team, it has a very good team.

Vidarbha lifted its third Ranji Trophy at the VCA Stadium on Sunday, beating the first-time finalist Kerala on first-innings lead. It was clearly the more talented and balanced side, and it played better cricket, not just in the final, but in the entire tournament.

Kerala has reasons to feel proud about its historic achievement. And Sachin Baby’s men did that without the services of its best cricketer, Sanju Samson, for most of the season. And they finished their campaign unbeaten (outright that is), just like Vidarbha.

But Vidarbha was so unlike Kerala: in the group stage, it won six of its seven matches. Then it won the quarterfinal and semifinal outright too, while Kerala scraped through on the first-innings lead, by one run in the quarterfinal and two runs in the semifinal.

Vidarbha, however, was fortunate that it could play all its three knock-out matches at home, while Kerala had to travel to Pune, Ahmedabad and Nagpur for its. That is because Vidarbha scored more points than its rivals in the league matches and Kerala less than its rivals. It may not be a bad idea to see if there is a better way to decide the host for the knock-out matches, to make it a bit fairer for all the teams.

This Vidarbha team, though, would have overcome the opposition regardless of the venues. When you have the competition’s highest wicket-taker, Harsh Dubey (69 wickets), and highest run-getter, Yash Rathod (960 runs), it certainly helps.

Dubey is an exciting prospect; he is not just one of the best left-arm spinners in the country, but he can bat too (he doesn’t miss an opportunity to remind people of that fact). Apart from Rathod, another young batter, Danish Malewar, also has been remarkably consistent, and was the player-of-the-final for his 153 and 73.

Vidarbha also did the right thing by signing the experienced and classy Karun Nair last season though it was Kerala that he first approached.

But Vidarbha’s transformation into one of the giants of domestic cricket has more to do with the work at the grassroots level. And Vaidya played a key role as the director of Vidarbha Cricket Association’s academy.