And Phew ! Finally Liberation ! On writing that I should warn myself that though the Prelims are over I have hardly a month left for my University Exams. And they say 2nd year is the toughest of all. But as the saying goes “Fortune favors the brave”. The brave and extra ordinary Johnites are often favored by RGUHS and I hope that magic works out this time also.
Apart from studies, something else is happening in my college campus… the much hyped Johnite Premier League is back in a miniature version – A knock out T10 Cricket Series. I hope this one also would work out like JPL Season 1. And as this unfolds I would like to share with my readers the story of how this JPL came into Johns… On a quick take, it would be right to say ‘JPL is the height of joblessness of a few Johnites’. It all started on a Sunday afternoon when a few of us who were sitting quite bored in my hostel room (B-206), doing nothing but our usual stuff – gossiping and cribbing. Then suddenly everyone wanted to go out play some cricket. It was IPL season, and no doubt the match had a regional flavor immediately. APites and Mals formed different teams. Teams where christened as team Hyderabad and Team Kochin (Team Kochin name rooting from the disappointment of Mallus including me who felt Gods own country was not adequately represented in IPL) . And thus the first JPL match was played. A detailed report on this match is available on Johnknight – The St. Johns Medical College Blog. ( http://johnknight.in/?p=40)
The concept of mixing up players from different batches and playing became a sudden hit. Thus other batches and guys who wanted to play
cricket started approaching us. And thus after a few table discussions, brain storming sessions (?), arguments, debates and what not… finally we came up with a set of rules, guidelines and a fixture. Thus JOHNITE PREMIER LEAGUE started officially. Again the first match of the official version was between Bhagyanagar Beewars (Team Hyderbad) and Kochin Kudos (Team Kochin)
The success of JPL was in the fact that people who never played cricket or rather never bothered to even go to the playgrounds (read as Jino Joy) came down and played for their teams. Can you believe that a total of 124 Johnites played in the series with 6 teams and 25 matches spread over 2 weeks. Not to forget the presence of the fairer sex not just in cheering but also on the ground playing cricket with the guys. All together it was fun + Cricket. JPL would have never happened this way without the support of my batch mates and 2005. Some people who deserve a special mention are:- Yatta, Nitin, Pranit (Ass. coordinator), Tony, Roshan, Murtuza, Jarvis, Suyash, Charles, Basanth, Rajkumar, Judi etc.
I would not claim JPL as something so great to write pages about, but rather would put it as an example of how small things work out in a big way at my college – St. Johns ! And this spirit is what we call as our Johnite Spirit.
That’s all for now… back to JPL Core Team work…
Follow JPL on Johnknight.in
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