Kerala Should Tap Tennis-Ball Cricket Talent Too, Says KCL Star Coach

Assembling a squad of fresh faces to lift the Kerala Cricket League in the second season of the Kochi Blue Tigers, has been remarkable.

- ASOK KUMAR

The centre of it all was head coach Raiphi Vincent Gomez, who guided the team through various challenges and hurdles with calm determination.

For his players, he is ‘chetta’, an affectionate elder brother. To Kerala cricket, he is a significant name: the second cricketer from Kerala after Sreesanth to make it to the IPL, and a former representative at the U-17 and U-19 levels.

In his second year as head coach, Raiphi sits down for a chat with TNIE, reflecting on what it took to build champions and the promise of new talent, and the path ahead for cricket in the state.

When Kochi entered Season 2, expectations were modest. The first priority was to bring Saly Samson to the team, for whom we spent nearly half of our auction expenses,” Raiphi says. When Sanju joined, we had to purchase the rest of the team with limited money, which made others say that the team would be a ‘newbie’ one.

Raiphi chose to see those doubts as motivation. “Some even said we would be able to assemble a proper team only in the next year. Taking such jibes in a healthy spirit, I took up the challenge of training players who were relatively fresh to big-shot tournaments. And here we are: the champions of KCL Season 2,” he beams.