Kotla 101

The Kotla, in a rather perverse way, reminds you of a dance bar. Now not that I have been to any — relax mom — but the long corridor, the small, dimly-lit rooms at either end and the even more dimly-lit bars really make you wonder how this could be the office of the Capital's cricket association.

As I approached what was going to be my 'haunt' for the next few months — more like my haunting, if you ask me — I was first stopped by the guard.

The guard, despite me telling him I was from the Hindustan Times, and showing him my I-card, didn't seem convinced about my identity and gave me more than just a stare while letting me in.

For one minute, as the guard was looking at my I-card and alternately at me, the thought of something more sinister than just good ol' folks working their socks off for the betterment of the game in the city was being hatched inside the Kotla.

So, anyway once the guard was absolutely certain I wasn't a mole sent by Cricket South Africa to look at the pitch ahead of the game between South Africa A and India A, he let me in.

Now, like any other 'organisation', now terming DDCA an organisation is, in itself, a massive shot in the arm for it, here too, there are certain people who make all the decisions. They might not necessarily be people holding big posts, but they wield much, much more power and influence than most.

Ask anyone who frequents the Kotla — and believe me there are quite a few — who has all the inside information, before anyone else, and you'll be surprised to hear the answers. People, whose official job would be keeping files in order, are the ones who are the be-all and end-all of the day-to-day affairs.

That, in a nutshell, was the first impression I formed of the Ferozeshah Kotla, so long then, till the next time I find myself in the cauldron that is the Kotla. There's plenty more where this came from.