Thrilled to meet their icons

Engaging Encounter

The rain might have played the spoiltsport for the England Cricket Team which was practising at the Chinnaswamy Stadium on Friday evening, but it sure didn’t dampen the spirit of four energetic 16-year-old girls who had come all the way from Delhi to meet them.

As part of the ‘Room to Read’, one of the official charity partners for the ICC Cricket World Cup, these four girls, from a government school, bagged an opportunity of a lifetime by travelling to Bangalore for the first time only to meet their favourite players and ask them questions. Metrolife witnessed the little tete-a-tete between them and Johnathan Trot and Tim Bresnan, while Ajmal Shahzad and Andrew Strauss pitched in with their share of autographs for the girls to take back home.

One of the first few things, they asked the boys was, how many sixes they would hit during the Sunday match. Johnathan laughed and said, “We are hoping to get at least six sixes in one over.”

Isha Khatun, one of the students, was very curious to know the strategy that the team was going to apply. Clearing her doubts, Tim said, “We are not going to let you guys know our secrets.”

But the girls were persistent, so Johnathan joked, “We plan to knock them off in five overs, what do you say to that?”

Not satisfied, the girls went on to ask them many other questions, with the limited time they had on hands. One question that made the players think hard was asked by Mousumi Dey. “Which Indian player would give you the toughest competition?” And the players were surely lost for an answer.

Renu immediately lightened up the mood and asked who their best friend was in the team. Tim immediately pointed out, “All of us are close to each other but I would say that Johnathan is my best friend.” Light-hearted Johnathan added, “But Tim is not mine.”  

The girls also wanted to know if the players were voracious readers and were impressed that many of them did take time out to read.  “I love autobiographies, especially of sportsmen.

Being one, I feel I can relate to them to some extent. I have just completed the book on Andre Agassi and I am slowly moving on to read the book by Nelson Mendela,” said Johnathan.

Thrilled by their answers, the girls wrapped up their session by posing for photographs and getting as many autographs as they could.  “I think this has been the most memorable day for me. I started off by meeting my favourite Indian player Virat Kohli and now I am ending it by meeting the England team. I came here thinking we will meet only a few players but getting to meet so many of them is something I can’t describe,” said a thrilled Ruppu Kumari, another student.