Cricketing Diversity!

The recent Ranji Trophy triumph by the Karnataka cricket team was an awesome achievement for the young group. Even as the Indian National Team was receiving a pasting in New Zealand, the Karnataka team was making national news. What came out was that the team had excellent spirit and celebrated one another's success on and off the field. The mark of all successful teams. It was also interesting to see, Vinay Kumar, the captain who hails from the tiny town of Davengere, marshaling his troops with aplomb. Incidentally his father is an auto rickshaw driver who went through enormous sacrifice in letting his son pursue his cricketing dreams. However what was not evident was the diversity that this team had. A laundry list: Karun Nair - A Malyalee, Amit Verma - Ethnic UP, Manish Pandey - Ethnic UP, Shreyas Gopal - Tamil, Abhimanyu Mithun - Telugu, Stuart Binny - Anglo Indian, Abrar Kazi - Muslim, This is brilliant indeed and while the rest of the team may comprise native Kannadigas, the diversity is pleasing to see in an India that is starting to get increasingly connected.Bangalore is like a magnet that attracts the brightest and the best and is an extremely inclusive city. It is this that marks the city out as an outstanding one and causes it to be a beacon for the future. It is becoming increasingly evident that inclusive diversity is the path to the future and narrow parochial considerations have little space in a flat world.