God of Cricket!-Chapter 45: Pre-season in London

Chapter 45: Pre-season in London

Aryan stared at his social media profile on his laptop with a puzzled face. "Is this my account?" he thought.

Aryan looked on at the exponential increase in followers on his profile. He had just 700 followers the day before on Facebook and the newly launched Twitter.

Most of them were people he knew from school, his academy days at Shivaji Park, and a few other friends and family members.

But now it had gone from 700 to 47,467 followers in just 24 hours, and it would increase every time he refreshed the page via his broadband connection.

Aryan quickly went to his Twitter account. Aryan saw that the recently created account had 11,000 followers.

Aryan knew just how hard it was to get followers on social media in 2007, and to get this much in less than a day was wonderful.

Aryan quickly followed back a few of his senior teammates as they had followed him too.

Rohit Sharma quickly sent him a congratulatory message on Orkut/Facebook messenger. He had just seen the official press release of Aryan signing the Grade A contract with the MCA.

Aryan thanked him and replied to a few messages from Suresh (Sosa), Ananya (Olivia), and some friends from the U19 camp.

Aryan, after replying to their messages, quickly went to freshen up. After bathing, Aryan put on some comfortable track pants and a t-shirt and went down for breakfast.

Aryan chatted with his family, and they had a conversation on what he was going to do now that he was going into his final year of school while being a professional cricketer.

Aryan decided that he would complete his SSC (10th Boards) first before he would think about college stuff.

Soon it was noon, and it was time for Aryan to head to the Wankhede Cricket Centre complex.

Aryan, after he got there, was greeted by some of his teammates who had gotten there earlier.

The senior players were now comfortable with Aryan, and they had accepted him as a teammate and not just some brat who got to play the matches due to connections or hype.

The players who didn’t know Aryan from his youth academy days didn’t really know much about his consistency, but Aryan had shown them what he was capable of in the training sessions and the Vijay Hazare debut.

The ones who knew him from the U19 days just took it as a reminder of how talented he was.

The training started after the players had arrived, and Aryan proved his prowess in the net simulation match by scoring a quickfire 30 and taking a wicket after they were done with the fitness session.

After the simulation, some of the players decided to take some rest in the shade.

Aryan, on the other hand, took a bag of balls and set up a single stump to train his Spot Bowling (Accuracy).

The players looked on as he hit the base of the stump repeatedly from a full run-up.

Aryan’s technique and accuracy were impeccable, and the players couldn’t deny it.

Aditya Tare, the wicketkeeper who was now a regular in the squad, saw Aryan’s accuracy and offered to keep wickets for the drill.

"Let’s make it interesting. Try to hit a coin," Tare said.

Aryan didn’t refuse as having a keeper would be better practice for him than just hitting a net.

Coach Praveen Amre and Coach Kulkarni looked on as Tare crouched behind the stump.

The players too looked on at the contest between Aryan and the target.

Aryan marked his run-up. He placed a coin on the yorker length spot.

Aryan, with a graceful and rhythmic run-up, released the ball.

Tare stared on as the ball was coming at him.

The ball reversed in the air late.

Clack!

The ball homed into the base of the stump, dislodging the coin, and all the surrounding players and staff couldn’t help but admire the control.

Coach Amre then and there wanted to put Aryan in charge of the death overs, but he knew it wouldn’t be a great move to pressure him so early, so he just kept quiet.

Aryan took a few attempts, hitting the stump 5 out of 6 times.

After the training session, Coach Amre made the players gather around him.

He relayed some tactical pointers to them before telling them the big news. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

"Okay everyone, pack your woolens. We will be having our pre-season tour in England."

This got some of the players excited as a few of the players were fans of the English County culture, the swinging conditions, or just wanted to shop in London.

Aryan, who heard this, was feeling ecstatic. This was because his mother, Priya, and sister, Riya, also had plans to go to London to visit family.

"It’s been a while since I saw Grandma and Grandpa. This is nice," thought Aryan.

In this world, his maternal grandparents lived in Southall, London.

The players quickly dispersed after the briefing. Some went to wash down and left afterwards. Others just went straight home.

Aryan, after washing down, waited for his mother to pick him up.

After Priya picked up Aryan, he told her about the pre-season tour in England.

Priya was happy about it as she was saddened recently thinking that Aryan wouldn’t be able to come to London for the family reunion because of cricket.

After they got home, Priya informed Riya about it, and she too was happy.

Aryan quickly went up and washed up again as he always did.

He informed Ananya about the pre-season tour via text.

Ananya kept wishing she could go with them, but it wasn’t to be as she was studying for her mid-term exams at Delhi University.

Aryan chatted a bit more with her before he checked his Socials.

His social media accounts, although having few posts, now had significant traction.

Aryan decided to post some of the pictures of the training session he had played in. He posted it and quickly left his account.

Aryan scrolled through the cricket news websites. Most of the news was about the upcoming IPL Auction.

The buzz about MS Dhoni potentially signing for Chennai Super Kings for a record fee ($1.5 Million) was at its highest. Also, rumors about Sachin Tendulkar being the Icon Player for Mumbai Indians were dominating the headlines.

This was huge because if the auction went through, the landscape of cricket would change forever.

Aryan scrolled through some more before deciding to rest.

The next few days went on smoothly and quickly.

Aryan continued training and spending time with his family. He was trying to meet the expectations of the club (MCA) and the fans.

And Aryan at least wanted to give them some assurance by performing great at the pre-season tour against English counties.

Priya, who saw this dedication, was a bit sad and at the same time happy. She was just feeling conflicted.

Her little boy had now grown into a young man with a career.

She approached Aryan one morning when he was getting ready to go and train.

Priya told Aryan that resting sometimes too was okay. Aryan just smiled at his mother’s words before hugging her side.

"I’m okay Ma," he said before leaving. Priya just stared at the back of Aryan as he got out of view.

"Look at our boy, Raghav (Father’s name)," Priya muttered as Aryan disappeared from her view.

The training kept going on, and Aryan could see the results of his training. Even without using his stat points, Aryan could feel changes in his game—his balance was better, his wrist position more stable.

Most of his teammates had recognized Aryan as a kid with potential, but few had actually accepted that he was one of the better players in the team alongside the internationals.

This was because even though Aryan had performed spectacularly well in the chances and matches he had been given, it had just been a domestic one-dayer and U19 games. The real test was First-Class cricket.

Aryan continued performing well, and on the final day, Coach Amre announced the 20-man squad for the pre-season tour and the 11-man matchday squad for the first practice match against Surrey, which included yours truly.

Aryan felt happy that he was part of the matchday squad for the first match.

Aryan told Priya when she picked him up from training.

The buildup to the pre-season got exciting as a lot of signings had been made in the corporate leagues.

Indian Oil had just concluded the signing of Cheteshwar Pujara for their corporate team.

A lot was going on in the cricket ecosystem.

Aryan, who was reading the article surrounding the auctions, saw a text message.

He looked and saw that it was from his Agent, Meera.

Meera had proved to be a good fit as an agent for Aryan as both of them just clicked professionally.

Aryan read the message and smiled.

"Perform well at the pre-season in London. English conditions are tough, but if you score there, global brands like Adidas will come knocking. Your socials are already growing exponentially so keep it up."

Aryan then opened his phone and checked his stats.

Aryan Sharma

Posts: 18 | Followers: 140k | Following: 62

Izan—I mean Aryan—looked at his account and felt a sense of accomplishment.

He quickly checked other platforms and saw similar growth.

Aryan quickly posted the pre-season tour schedule. The first match would be on the 26th of July 2007 at The Oval, which was 17 days from the current date.

Aryan turned off his phone before resting a bit in the car. The countdown to the tour began.

Every single day was full of the same repetitive thing. Aryan would wake up, then go on to complete the System’s daily mission (now for minimal rewards).

After that, Aryan would freshen up before going down for breakfast. After that, Aryan would just laze around the whole day or study.

He would learn a bit, then talk with Ananya for some time.

The final day came, and Aryan was on the team bus headed towards Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSIA).

The team would be flying directly to London Heathrow. Aryan in the bus just played some Snake or listened to music on his iPod.

He was getting tired after a while, so he decided to sleep.

Meera had told Aryan to make small video shots which could be posted on his social media handles later.

Aryan did just that. A few photos and videos on the bus and on the plane to London.

The flight time was about 9 hours in total, and the Mumbai players were already feeling tired from the schedule.

Aryan decided to continue getting materials for his Socials.

Aryan, feeling ecstatic over going to the home of cricket (England), couldn’t sleep much.

Even though his grandparents lived there, he hadn’t visited since he was 8.

Aryan finally decided to sleep after the fatigue caught up to him.

Aryan woke up just to see the plane landing at Heathrow Airport.

The players got out of the plane and were greeted by a typical cold, grey morning in London.

The mist from the players’ mouths whenever they talked made it clear. Aryan looked around and nodded.

Aryan breathed in the air before exhaling. The mist surrounding him was pushed away by his hot exhale.

The players followed suit as they were led out of the terminal.

As the players were getting out of the airport, they were surprised to see a considerable number of fans at the exit—mostly the Indian diaspora living in the UK.

The players waved at these fans who immediately got excited after they saw stars like Wasim Jaffer and Ajit Agarkar.

Aryan saw a young boy holding a Mumbai Ranji shirt with a marker.

Aryan looked on and smiled at the fan before heading over towards him.

"Hello there. Do you want an autograph?" Aryan asked in English with a slight Indian accent.

The kid was surprised that the player approached him. He looked at Aryan, recognizing the green eyes.

"It’s you! I know you! You’re Aryan! You hit the switch hit six against Delhi! My cousin in Mumbai sent me the clip on Orkut! Your name sounds Indian, but you look... well, you look cool!" the kid said excitedly in a British accent.

"Ah, sorry for talking too much," the kid added, shyly.

Aryan just stared on at the kid with a smile.

He then asked for the kid’s name—Rohan—and signed his name on the jersey with his autograph beside it.

"Between you and me, you are the first person in England to get my autograph," Aryan said with a wink.

Aryan said before walking off, leaving the kid in his own world of joy.