The All India Inter-school Polly Umrigar Trophy has been recognised by the Board of Control for Cricket in India for the first time this year. And talking about Delhi cricket in particular, the name of Salwan Boys school pops up a fair number of times when the (unrecogised) tournament’s roll of honour is taken into consideration. Though they have won the inter-city trophy seven times, this time around, it’s Vidya Jain Public School who are representing the Capital.

The two institutions do have one thing in common, however: VJPS’s current coach happens to be Sanjay Bhardwaj, the same man responsible for the successes that came Salwan Public School’s way. The apparent novelty in this year’s representation by VJPS, otherwise a pleasant surprise to have, shouldn’t be mistaken for any sign of growing competition.

“I was the coach of Salwan Boys School from 1994-2007 and they won eight national school-level titles under me. But earlier last year, in May, they suddenly decided to discontinue all cricketing activities and I was sent off,” says Sanjay Bhardwaj.

As the coach was shown the door abruptly and joined VJPS in a hurry, his students decided to follow him. “Most of the players from Salwan Boys switched to Vidya Jain Public School to continue with their cricketing ambitions,” Bhardwaj says.

Picking the best for the Polly Umrigar Trophy wasn’t a tough ask at all with the coach being spoilt for choice. There were at least nine familiar faces for Bhardwaj at the VJPS training sessions —Vikas Singh, Niteesh Sharma, Pratik Kaushik, Sandeep Kaushik, Shaquib Alam, Ankit Dabas, Avishek Rawat, Nakul Sharma and Sajan Malhotra — that lent considerable force to the team.

“With Gourav Kochar, Vikas Mishra, Amit Biru and Sachin Solanki already available, the rest of the bunch only helped me pick the squad from a better pool of players. Madan Sharma of the Sonnet Cricket club has helped me as well,” Bhardwaj adds.

Perfect stage
“With the BCCI acknowledging their performance, the kids have a perfect stage to perform. They have never stayed at such hotels or enjoyed such facilities. As far as the team is concerned, I can assure at least eight from this team will play Ranji Trophy, if they keep up this performance,” Bhardwaj asserts.

The excitement in skipper Sandeep Kaushik’s voice, afresh from a match-winning 82, becomes apparent when he describes his stay in Mumbai. “I’ve been to Mumbai earlier as well, but have never stayed in a hotel on the Marine Drive. It’s unbelievable,” Kaushik says.

If the accessorial feel attached to the tournament has left the young day-dreamers awestruck, member of the junior selection committee Sanjeev Sharma points the serious angles. “It’s (the tournament) a jackpot for the youngsters. Anybody who’s played in the Vijay Merchant Trophy gets another go while the rest of the under-16 children can also participate. This is the reason why I have seen so many new faces here. We are going to submit the list of selected players to the board,” says Sharma.