Freiburg is one of the small towns in Germany. So, unlike big cities, it is not a popular place for expats. There are very few people from the commonwealth living here. Of those, I think about a couple of hundred are 'desis'. With such a demography, it comes as a surprise that in this little beautiful town in the back forest, there are two cricket clubs.
In mid 1990s, the first cricket club was started by the British and Australian expats and very rightly they named it Freiburg-Nomads. Sometime in late 1990's the Pakistani expats started their own club.
The Pak-Freiburg has always been a less organized but very competitive side. By contrast, the Nomads, have been more of a social club. However, in recent years with more Indian/Pakistani students joining the club, the Nomads have become pretty competitive side.
With Nomads gaining strength, in last few years, a sort of rivalry has developed between the two teams. So matches between the two teams are very hard fought - on field and on some occasions even off the field. The last time the two teams met, the match was abandoned because of a rather unnecessary on field verbal explosion between the two captains.
After that match the general feeling among the Nomads was never to play the Pak-Freiburg again. However, this was not to be. Both the teams joined the newly formed Baden-Wurtemberg cricket league and as the fate has it, these two local rivals will be face-to-face for their first league game on the coming Sunday (April 25,2010).
The last season for the Nomads was one to forget, in which we barely one a game. This year, did not start any better, however, the early defeat in a practice game did a great deal of good to the team. Since that defeat, in four/five training sessions, players have been more systematic and have been working on their weak points. Three new players have joined in, including a pretty solid batsman, who will be a big bonus after we lost Vijay to an injury. Sagir's presence in the last two training sessions have been very motivating. I am particularly impressed with the improvement of Raghav as a bowler. Rajesh is looking good. In batting other than the incumbent Ritesh, Sagir, Sikander and Craig are looking solid. So is Adnan. Today I took a couple of overs to get in the rhythm but overall I am very satisfied with my form. So far in training I did not focus on taking wickets, so I will have to switch gears.
Very importantly, the team is in very good tempo, things are gelling very well. Everyone is in high spirit and confident. I think self-confidence is the most important things to go with in a cricket game. After all, cricket is a team game played by individuals. All in all the Nomads are raring to go and take on their local rivals and everyone wants to start the season and the league with a WIN.
Cricket is a great unifier. Or at least cricket can bring opportunities to resolve conflicts. So I look forward to a great game and independent of the result, I hope the two teams will be able to resolve their conflicts and return to a healthy rivalry.
right arm over
Arvind
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