The Foundation Stays

Impromptu flight: Part 1

"Whatever you wish," said Hardik.

Under other circumstances, Rohit might have found the idea of Hardik being meek funny. Now that it was happening, it was not in the least funny.

"Maybe we can start at the start," said Rohit bracingly. "Jayawardene contacted me around two weeks before our team met for the first warm up match and suggested the trade, keeping in mind the future of MI. Since you're captain of GT, it's only fair you become captain of MI as well if you're to switch teams, and he asked me if I'd step down, and I said I would. Did they talk to you before?"

"Yes, I--I guess so," said Hardik. "Three weeks before the World Cup. Initially, they didn't say anything about captaincy, they asked if I'd switch at the same salary--I said I'm the captain of GT as well--"

Then he sunk back into the depths of the unicorn plushie, burying his face in his hands, shoulders shaking.

"--but I didn't say--and I didn't mean anything about MI's captaincy at all. I don't even know why I said it, just to negotiate, maybe--I didn't think, I never think, Rohit bhaiya, I should just have said yes then and there--"

"Since when do you call be Rohit bhaiya?" Rohit pulled Hardik's hands away from his face. "You didn't make a grave mistake putting in you're captain of GT. Not in my eyes, at least, though I do see to some people, we players should, ah, be loyal to our oldest IPL teams to walk back to them at whatever we're offered, even if they were unable to retain us a couple of years back."

 If Rohit had hoped for a smile, he was disappointed, because Hardik was crying again.

"I know at this point no one's going to believe this, but these last two years, all I've wanted is to go back to MI. So that offer felt like--a bit of a dream. Of course I didn't know how it was about to turn out," Hardik said bitterly. "But never mind, since no one's going to believe it, I'm going to pretend I didn't have any loyalty towards our team."

Before Rohit could interrupt, Hardik was talking again.

"They said that yes, there should be some compensation for the captaincy thing--and then later when they called, they straightaway asked if I'd captain MI--they said you had said you'd step down if the trade was successful--"

"Which I did say," put in Rohit.

"Why did you?" asked Hardik unexpectedly.

"I don't know," said Rohit. "They asked, and it seemed the right thing to do. I didn't mind stepping down for you to settle into the role a couple of years in advance..."

"But if they hadn't asked? Was stepping down in your mind, like Virat did?"

"I'm not going to lie to you, Hardik," said Rohit cautiously. "No, it was not on my mind...not right now, at least."

"Then why did you? You could've just said no--or you could have just talked to me--" Hardik sounded wild. "There--I'm still blaming you when none of it is your fault, Rohit--none of this would have happened if I'd just said yes or no to the offer, instead of--instead of mentioning the word--"

"None of it is your fault either!" Rohit had to raise his voice to make himself heard and taken seriously. "Far from it being your fault, now that it has happened, I can see how it's good for MI's future, as they said--when I retire, I'd like to leave MI in safe hands--"

Wrong word.

Hardik flung himself down on the dew-soaked soil and bawled his eyes out.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry--" Rohit tried in vain to get him to sit up, or at least lie face down on the plushie instead of the ground. "That was not what I meant, Hardik, all I meant was that I'm not at all upset about the new set up--it's all our old bunch again, we can work brilliantly together next season, you and me and Jassi and SKY--"