From distant Kasaragod to capital Thiruvananthapuram – a timeless line the loudspeakers blare during poll campaigns in Kerala, implying the reach of a party or a candidate from the northern tail to the southern tip of the State. From this Monday, fans, friends, and families of cricketers, along the 577-kilometre-long stretch that curves like a fish, would flock around television sets or hunch over smartphone screens to watch Kerala tussle Gujarat in Ahmedabad for a historic appearance in a Ranji Trophy final.
Last week, a quiet town in southern Kasaragod, once famous for hand-woven prayer caps, was abuzz with festivities when local boy Mohammed Azharuddeen helped Kerala grind out a draw against Jammu and Kashmir in Pune. Some 380 kilometres away, on the banks of Thodupuzha river in Kanjiramattom in Ernakulam district, neighbours thronged medium pacer MD Nidheesh’s house.
The most famous draw in Kerala’s cricket landscape connected hitherto incongruous towns and villages. Man of the match and batting talisman Salman Nizar is from Thalassery, the birthplace of cricket in the state. Akshay Chandran, whose resistance was equally valuable, was born in Kochi, before moving to Kannur and then polishing the game in Thalassery. The captain Sachin Baby is from Adimali in Idukki; Basil Thampi and N Basil are from Perumbavoor, dotted with plywood factories, in Ernakulam district; KM Asif is from Kottayam, Rohan Kunnummal hails from Palakkad, although raised in Kozhikode’s Koyilandy, and Shoun Roger is from Vettukad, in the north-west coast of Thiruvananthapuram.
