Now Malayalees Take Shine To Cricket, Kerala Creates History In Ranji Trophy

Is Kerala moving away from its sports culture legacy embedded in track and field, football, volleyball and basketball? These are early days, but the multi-cultural mix of the Southern state is openly pointing towards its love for cricket. For the first time in the annals of the eight-decade old Ranji Trophy — a blue riband tournament of the BCCI — Kerala threw down the gauntlet and reached the pinnacle to have a shot at the title of the 2024-25 season. Now and then Kerala has shown the spark in the white-ball format of the game and a number of Malayalee cricketers have taken the spotlight — but the team — one among the 32 in the four Elite Groups  — fashioned a one run and two run lead in the quarter-finals and semi-finals to enter the final by its own right. Long ago Kerala was a no hoper against strong cricket legacy teams like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Hyderabad in the Zonal format, but the introduction of a new format ago has given more exposure to the minnows and this season Kerala advanced from a group in which  six were previous winners of the Ranji Trophy like Haryana, Karnataka, MP, West Bengal, UP and Punjab. Bihar was the eighth team in their group. The Malayalees across India and the world will watch the final with keen interest as Kerala locks horns with the two-time winner Vidarbha for the coveted prize and Rs 5 crore. Hail Kerala, one may raise a toast now!