One fine spring morning in 1990, a group of cricket lovers strolled onto the soccer field at Oakland University with their hearts full of dreams -- of reliving a glorious past many had thought they had left behind when they left the shores of their homeland. The setting was perfect - greenery all around, the sweet smell of fresh cut grass, sunlight warming an otherwise chilly day - the Saturday after the winter semester, which meant that no one had to worry about school work. All we had at the time was a bat and an old cricket ball. A trash drum passed for stumps. We played for hours together until we could move no more. We were all thoroughly exhausted but all we could think of was when we could play next.
We then discussed the idea of getting a full cricket kit. What were we poor students to do? We knew the cost of getting what we wanted was prohibitive, but we never wanted anything else this bad. A suggestion was to try forming a cricket club affiliated to the University, which would then necessitate the school to fund us. We decided to pursue the idea very seriously and quickly. We went about collecting signatures from all interested students and submitted a petition the very next workday to the University. Our joy knew no bounds when word trickled in that the club was formed and a handsome sum was awarded to kick start our cricket dreams. A delegation was sent to New York scour the city for cricket paraphernalia.
The cricket season started soon after. We met regularly on Friday evenings and played till the very last ray of sunlight left us. At this point, the chief organizer was Sathya, a Ph.D. candidate in biology. Others included Madhu, Sai Prasad, Jatin, Reddy, Laxman and Pratap. We managed to attract a few players from England, Pakistan and the Caribbean. The fun lasted through a few weeks into the Fall semester.
Come spring next year, there were a lot more players showing interest : Anand, who had been in India the previous year on a break joined us as did Mali, Shankar Veerashetty, Shankar, Chander , Raja, Athi, Suresh and YRK. Some injuries happened : Chander dislocated his shoulder diving for a ball and had to be driven to the hospital, Suresh lost some teeth attempting a wild shot and getting an edge to his mouth.
The next spring, when the weather changed for the better, our thoughts were focused on cricket. To our great disappointment, we found out that the mat was missing. Sathya had left O.U. and had placed the mat in one of the lockers at the Rec. Center. We could not find it - it left many of us dejected. An attempt was made to play at the same site without the use of a mat, but the first few balls bowled proved what we already knew : it was extremely hazardous.
An alternative was to play 'tennis ball' cricket. The 'team ' was in transition at this time with several players relocating and a general lack of enthusiasm for this form of cricket. Activities were restricted to an occasional get together at the Patrick Henry tennis courts for a couple of hours. Then three new students joined us late summer and were extremely enthusiastic about cricket - Ananth,Srikanth and Vaidy. Ananth joined us for the last 'cricket ball' cricket session – the only one in the season.
During the next couple of years, cricket was restricted exclusively to the Patrick Henry tennis court. Players included Anand, Ananth, Lu, Madhu, Mali, Mohan, Srikanth, Vaidy and several journeymen - residents of Patrick Henry or their friends and students from other universities who were job hunting in metro Detroit.
1995 was a landmark year in the history of the Juggernauts - the 3 A-s joined the cricket fraternity - Ashish, Amit and Arvind. We ran into several future rivals at the tennis courts : Raj (CBSI-HQ and later Chrysler), Ashok and Prem (both Chrysler). Late summer, we were joined by a new batch of students, including Satish and Balaji. Late summer and for much of fall, we discovered the pleasure of floodlit cricket when we shifted venues to a set of tennis courts on Opdyke road on Amit's suggestion. Earlier in the season, we were introduced to the concept of taped-ball by Venkat (Niranjan's friend, who was visiting from Kentucky). By the end of the season, by far the longest and most hectic, we were all thirsting for more action and were desperate to find teams to play against.
The next season started early and there was no letting up - taped-ball cricket continued to ignite the flames of cricketing passion. The search for area teams continued. Ananth found a team that was willing to play us - the "GM team" or the "Sardar team" as it was called. We beat them hands down with several players rotating strike just to get a feel for the opposition's bowling after Ananth and Satish had shredded them. One fine day, when we discovered that there was a local league playing tennis ball cricket (Madhu heard rumors at Farmington Civic theater and Lu had heard the same at work), we couldn't wait to jump in the fray. Lu helped to get a contact phone number and Madhu followed up. Contact with Venu, the CBSI league organizer was established. Unfortunately, the league had just concluded their season. Nevertheless, the league teams were just as thrilled as we were in finding new competition and several non-league games were played. We lost the first two games by a total of 7 runs. The team : Amit, Ashish, Balaji, Lu, Mohan, Madhu, Satish, Shashikant, Srikanth, Vaidy and Vamsi. We were just getting used to playing with a tennis ball after having played with the taped-ball for almost two years. We didn't lose a game for the rest of the post-season as we played different teams in the league. Ananth and Anand played joined the team for these games.
1997 marked the first year that we entered the tournament. Challu and Pushkar joined the team this year. Niranjan and Bala were our invisible reserves, who were on the team, but were busy in another league. The team, initally called "OUCC" was named "OUAX" by Anand (OU and X-Alumni) and then Madhu came up with the "Juggernauts" moniker as we steam rolled the opposition through the regular season to end up with the only loss to Chrysler in the league matches. We limped through the semifinals and then we lost a heart-breaker in the finals to the Chrysler team. Finals score : Chrysler - 68 all out. Juggernauts - 67 all out in the 25th over.
It was a devastating loss for the favored team, but it steeled the players to try even harder the next season. The runners-up trophies were no consolation - we wanted the big prize. Chandra picked up the best bowler award for the year.
The team for the 1997 season :
Anand(VC), Ananth, Balaji, Challu, Chandra, Lu, Madhu(C ), Mohan, Nadeem, Pushkar, Satish, Srikanth, Vaidy (Bala and Niranjan).
By the 1998 season, Balaji, Srikanth and Vaidy had relocated. Nadeem moved to Ann Arbor and played a game for the AA team. Bala again had committed to another league. In came Ashish, Mani, Niranjan, Salim & Venkat. We started the season with another close loss to the Chrysler team. We never looked back from this point on, waiting our turn to seek revenge for 1997. The Chrysler team in the meantime cruised through the regular season undefeated and blew out their semifinals opponent. We won our semifinals comfortably too, with the help of Mohan's blasts and some spirited rear guard help. Anand picked up the best batsman award for the season and Madhu the best bowler award. But the team's sights were set on a grander prize.
The stage was set for a repeat final with Chrysler now the favored team. We won the toss and put them in to bat. The Juggernauts put on their best bowling and fielding display in their history to restrict the storied Chrysler batting to half their season average - the target was again in the 60's. There would be no let up this time - the Juggernauts won't be denied. Mani and Lu started the batting determined to get us to the promised land and ground it out for the first few overs. Anand joined Mani. Mani was out soon after being in the middle for about 8 overs. Niranjan joined Anand and this pair brought us within smelling distance of the Cup. Anand's departure saw Satish join Niranjan and when Niranjan blasted a boundary to clinch the victory, the Juggernauts erupted in joy - the dream was fulfilled - the Cup was happy to come home!
The 1998 championship roster :
Anand(VC), Ananth, Ashish, Challu, Chandra, Lu, Madhu (C ), Mani, Mohan, Niranjan, Pushkar, Salim, Satish, Venkat.