By Qaiser Mohammad Ali
Kanpur, Nov 11 (IANS) Sunday was a day of mixed feelings for thousands of fans who thronged the Green Park Stadium for the India-Pakistan One-Day International (ODI) as they remembered Subhash Dixit and Ram Babu Pal, who committed suicide recently.
They also felt sorry for Mohammed Kaif, who learnt the finer points of the game here, but is now out of the Indian team.
But the capacity Green Park Stadium had a reason to celebrate the bowling of in-form Rudra Pratap Singh, the ace Uttar Pradesh left-arm pacer, who was playing his first international match on home turf. They raised full-throated cries for the Barabanki-born bowler who opened the attack when Pakistan began their chase.
Another reason for the fans to rejoice was Praveen Kumar, a member of the current Indian team who, however, is yet to make his ODI debut.
Singh and Piyush Chawla, another talented Uttar Pradesh player, were richer by Rs.1 million each for being part of the Twenty20 World Championships-winning team in South Africa last September.
Kaif, who spent eight years in the Sports Hostel here and played any number of matches at Green Park, has played few international matches at the venue, which doubles as his home ground since no international or first class matches are played in Allahabad, his hometown.
The middle order batsman has played two ODIs, but in the only innings he batted Kaif scored 78 against Pakistan in April 2005.
The now Delhi-based Kaif has, however, played none of his 13 Tests at this ground. Before being dropped from the national side, he had scored 624 Test runs, including a century, at an average of 32.84 and in 125 ODIs he had tallied 4,808 runs at an average of 32.01 with the help two centuries.
The spectators remembered Dixit, 22, because he had also probably shown as much promise as Kaif as a youngster.
“Besides being a talented player, Subhash was a nice human being, and I liked this aspect of his personality very much,” Sanjay Tiwari, one of the oldest cricket organisers, told IANS.
“Not just Subhash, but we are sad because Ram Babu Pal, a former Uttar Pradesh Ranji Trophy player, also committed suicide recently in Allahabad,” he said of the player who lived in Parmat, near the stadium.
Having turned out for the India under-19 side and captained the national under-15 team, Dixit, however, fizzled out due to various reasons, including frustration at not being given enough opportunities to excel that resulted in an insecure job scenario.
Dixit committed suicide by jumping, ironically, from a building that overlooks the Green Park Stadium this June 9.