The WCAI was our own makeshift universe, where we arranged our own transport and washed our own whites just to play. When the BCCI took over, everyone calls it a 'merger', but to us, it felt like a takeover where our years of struggle became a footnote. My specific regret is the 1998 trophy, which I polished every week, now sitting dusty in a forgotten storeroom of a big cricket museum, its donors' names—local shopkeepers who funded our tour—nowhere to be seen. So, for all the professional pay and facilities today, something vital, that spirit of *jugar* and sheer heart, was quietly erased.
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