Know your Skipper - Thulasi Peddineni
Captain - 3rd XI
Q1) Who is your favorite cricketer?I have never had any favorites in life. If you take movies as an example, I get more excited about the movie itself than the actors in it. Same for cricket, I am more passionate about cricket than cricketers Q2) What about in the club?
It is a very difficult one, it is an actually difficult one. From where we have started and where we have reached, I have to go with Raghu. He is the first superstar of SCCC, Ofcourse Deepak Rajurkar is eternal, I am not taking his name as he is one level above. The Rest of us are mere mortals, he is immortal. So Deepak Rajurkar and Raghu if I have to name them.Q3) Coming to your personal space, what do you enjoy more, your batting or captaincy?
Personally, and knowing my personality, leadership suits me because it makes me more relaxed. The more responsibility I have the more responsible I behave and it kind of helps my game as well. Q4) When chips are down, how do you motivate your team?
I always say that there is no option, we want to win, we are here to win and, in any game, I don't see we are going to lose until we have decided we have lost the game. The way I see is you can win any game until it's lost. I make sure people give their 100%. Normally, if we are in a bad position and when I see shoulders dropping on the field my hook line to motivate is, "Let's get this one wicket, I want somebody new to come and make the winning run" and actually it helped us in winning a few games last seasonQ5) When your key player is not performing, what sort of pep talk do you have with him and how do you motivate him?
I tend to give them the actual analysis of what I felt during the time and if he is my key resource then he would have played with us multiple times and I would know his game. If I see that there is something wrong he is doing I will certainly say that this is probably the wrong thing or sometimes you might be doing the right things but luck probably is not on your side. I am a keen observer and I tend to give them the right input and that's the key point.Q6) How do you balance between your individual contribution and your responsibility as captain?
Personally, for me being a captain, I don't take it to my head. I see myself as a facilitator and I really believe in that. As a batsman, I predominantly play the role of the opener and I have experience doing it, I tend to just do my job. As a captain, I am relaxed as I have nobody to disappoint apart from myself.Q7) What sort of preparation do you do pre-match?
Most of the opponents are known foes as I have been playing surrey cricket league for a while now. We know most of the players by their name and personality, so we know their strengths and weaknesses, so based on that, I would make a plan. But again, I have never had a very very strong team, where I can choose everything and plan everything.
Sometimes I have to work with resources available so I can't plan much before the match but once I arrive at the ground, I have a very good instinctive decision-making process where I know this is what is happening and this is how I need to respond. Of course, there is a basic structure in place, as to who are your opening bowlers, batting order, etc any changes are generally instinctively executed based on the Match situation. I am not the kind of person who thinks through all the details, primarily driven by resource constraints. Knowing my opponents helps me and planning on the day of a game is usually how I go about it. Q8) What is your goal for 2023?
Win Div 1 and get promoted to Premier DivisionQ9) Besides you, who are key resources in your team who you think can deliver for your team?
There are some core members who played with me last season and there is an influx of new talent as well. As of now, there is less clarity of team composition. I am expecting a stronger team this year compared to last year. I can only answer this once the team list is finalized.Q10) What is one thing you want to change from 2022?
In my team, I would say punctuality and discipline. I see quite a few players turning up late which has put a lot of pressure and there are matches in which, just because of pressure I didn't go opening as I was not happy and peaceful so I decided to step down in the batting order. So this is one area I want to see changed.Q11) What good thing about the club and one thing you want to change in the club?
Good thing - As a club and group of senior members, the way we handle new players is very good. We have a good attitude toward them and make them feel welcome, new players tend to thrive and once they come to us they tend to stick with us.
Areas of Improvement - there are a few things where we need to improve. One of the things is giving more notice for meetings so members can plan well in advance. This will also allow more members to join these meetings.
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