Phil Salt played for KKR in the IPL 2024. (Sportzpics)
‘Hey Phil, how are things on the other side?’ went the Twitter post accompanying a short practice clip of a ball from the Kolkata Knight Riders being flung towards where Royal Challengers Bengaluru were practicing. It was picked specifically by Phil Salt, a former Knight and now RCB muscle, and he used his bat to send it soaring back to the opposite side where KKR trained.
The 10-second clip, as Venkatesh Iyer, still a Knight, had no pretensions to absolute cinema, and was in fact not even reeled to any background music. With ambient training day sound, and no real attempt at making it dramatic, it wasn’t gunning for anything much. Except it has set the tone for the season’s theme where former regulars are viewed by fanbases as players who have moved on to the other side.
Plenty of ‘Sonam bewafa’ (sanam, means betrayor, pronounced sonam because Bengali) banter followed, though no dialogues were traded – just a ball sent his way for him to return. But the ‘Devdas’ adjacent responses trickled in, in 1000s as fans dared Salt to enjoy his RCB stint as much as he did at Kolkata.
Salt had been part of the KKR squad that won the last edition of the trophy. But the Englishman wasn’t retained, with Venkatesh Iyer obviously being a priority. The cricket crazy Kolkata crowd has been muttering on about assorted grievances – Why was Shreyas let go? Why was Rahane, Test star, brought in? Will Nortje be as good as Starc? Such tut-tutting is routine in Kolkata.
But seeing Salt in the more red-bit of blue jersey would’ve brought on a fresh wave of griping from the passionate fan base, as videos of the Kohli-Salt bonhomie and Salt-li combo clips are peppering socials. Then this post dropped. So, the fans took off.
Also, ‘Salty’ just writes itself into this script.
Alleged RCB fan: KKR fans are limited to Eden Gardens.
Pat came the reply.
Alleged KKR fan: RCB trophies are limited to dreams.
KKR have won three trophies in the 18 year old history. RCB, who reckon Season 18 will be special because Kohli dobs Jersey No 18, have won none. Yet. It must be recalled that KKR and RCB played the first ever match of IPL where Brendon McCullum set the stage on fire.
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All promises of ‘Absolute cinema’ in the opener however, are subject to rains not raining down the much publicised Day 1.
