‘No one told me why I wasn’t picked, no word of consolation either’

After India SoS, pacer Rakesh Patel just sat in the dressing room, watching his dream go bust

The disappointment is evident in Rakesh Patel’s voice. He came close to wining the India cap, twice. And each time it proved ‘so near yet so far’. And this time the disappointment unfolded for him in dramatic fashion.

He was sent an SoS to fly to Belfast from Liverpool to bail India out as most of the bowlers were down with the flu. The Baroda pacer responded promptly, and reached there in time.

His hopes were soaring. “I had this dream of playing for India before retirement. Finally, I think I have made it,” Patel had told this daily then, after receiving the call.

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His folks back home in Navsari, a district in Gujarat, started distributing sweets in celebration. Little did they know then that soon another disappointment will hover over their courtyard.

In the morning of the match against South Africa, Patel woke up with the hope of using the conditions conducive for seamers to trouble the Proteas, and cement his place in the side. But as luck would have it, his name was not inked in the playing eleven. The team went into the match with four bowlers, including two seamers.

“The way they called me I was certain that I would play. Besides, I thought they would play three seamers as the conditions were good for fast bowling. But to my surprise and disappointment, I was not there,” said Patel, who has moved back to Liverpool to play local league there.

Just like in 2002-03 series in New Zealand, here also, sitting at the dressing room, he had to control his urge to run down the bowling mark to destroy the opponents’ batting line-up. “It feels bad, of course. Coming so close and yet the dream remained unrealised,” said the 22-year old.

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But what would probably hurt the bowler more would be the fact that no word of encouragement came from any quarter, not even from captain Rahul Dravid.

“Dravid thanked me initially for joining the team on short notice. But no one told me why I wasn’t picked. There was no word of consolation either from anyone,” said Patel, who has taken 45 wickets from nine matches so far in the Liverpool League.

Patel does not even know how much he would get paid for his services. “I have got my daily allowance. But how much will I get for being there, I don’t know. The BCCI usually decides on such things after a tour,” said Patel, who took 37 wickets in the last Ranji season.

So what does he do now? Go back to the dead tracks in India and toil hard season after season, like he had been doing relentlessly? “I will keep playing the game, pursuing my love. And hope that one day my dream will be fulfilled. My dream to wear the India cap,” suddenly again there is hope in his voice.