Well, I laid low for a couple months, but, I didn’t have to wait long to have a celebratory evening with my friends and fellow teammates at Ford.
If you know me personally, I have always been a sports player. Ever since I started walking, I remember playing cricket outside with my childhood friends and buddies. When I was a small kid, I was so good at cricket that I used to win almost all competitions in my village or nearby village. From my school, I moved on to my college in Nanded, where I spent most of my time on the college playground and played almost all kinds of sports throughout the four years. I got a chance to captain the college cricket team and was a vital member of the Baseball and Softball team.
When I moved to the US, cricket didn’t leave me and on my second day in the US, I made almost 10 friends by playing cricket with them. The friendship continued so much that throughout my masters and especially during the summer vacation, I got a chance to win multiple trophies and made lifetime friendships.
When I moved to Michigan for my job, I had to wait a little to get to know my friends through cricket, but once I got a chance, I got to know so many things about Ford and cricket at Ford. It all accumulated to this day. I must say I had to wait longer for my first trophy in Michigan but it was worth the wait.
I was approached by one of my teammates to join his cricket team and the name of the team was “Lincoln MKZ”. The team names at Ford are named after Ford and Lincoln models and they all compete for a coveted title of the winners of the FCL (Ford Cricket League). I wasn’t surprised to know that the team named “F150” wins every year and the other team that comes closer to them is the team “Ford GT”. Both F150 and GT are crown jewels for Ford Motor Company, so it was fitting that they are the champions of FCL for a long time. I was happy to finally join a team and play in FCL.
The first few sessions with the team were nice and they reminded me of my Hartford days. I knew that the FCL was scheduled in a few days and that’s why we were practicing so much. One thing that was different here was that before playing the game or practice sessions, I always had to think about parking as I was still new in Michigan and there wasn’t a need of parking in Hartford as I didn’t own a car when I was a student.
Anyway, coming back to my FCL journey, our team didn’t do well to qualify for the quarter finals. I was disappointed that our team didn’t make it to the quarter finals at least, but was happy to know that we were allowed to participate in the Contenders cup, which was organized between all the teams who didn’t make it to the quarter finals.
I and the entire team was happy to know that we would get one more chance to play cricket and if played well, lift a trophy.
The team got back together and gave their best to reach the finals of the Contenders cup. The finals day was really special. It was cloudy, but it didn’t rain at all. The finals game lasted long and it got dark, which was a special feeling. In my life, I hadn’t played under the flood lights and when I walked in the ground for the first time, I felt really special.
In the finals, we won the toss and put a good total on the board. Our captain, Sarvesh, was the best amongst the runs and that boosted the team’s morale. We played the second innings extremely well and defended the runs quite well, winning convincingly. The last wicket of the opposite team fell with me catching it and that’s how I got to keep the winning ball.
The finals was followed by the prize distribution ceremony, which lasted only a few minutes, as the formal ceremony was going to take place a week later. But, we made sure we click many pictures and later on celebrate in the nearby bar. We spent almost couple hours more in the bar and had a really good time.
It was a fun time to hang out with everyone!
Next stop: Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, MI, USA
stochasticity 