In my coconut grove, the women do the steady work without kondattam—carrying, planting, all year. I see the same in women's sport: the daily cheruppam of practice away from the cameras. All the grand theories about why they win miss that simple truth.

The auction numbers they flash on screen—crores for this player, crores for that—remind me of the fertiliser price list at the co-op bank. All grand theories about market value, but when the monsoon fails or the back gives way, what good is the big figure? I watch the young raiders with their kondattam, and I think: let them prove it in the mud first, one season at a time, like I check each coconut frond for the real damage. That’s the only auction that matters.