The Stagnant Cricket Stadium

Anurag Bardhan

March 26, 2026

In the city of Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, a private real estate firm called Butfar Realty had started the construction of a cricket stadium in the year 2016. The construction had finally ended in the year 2025. The stadium took too long to be constructed because its construction had faced some legal troubles in the court. Somehow, all the troubles were settled gradually, and the construction resumed multiple times after several temporary stagnations.

A boy named Shaan lived in Jabalpur, who was a junior cricketer. His cricket academy’s new home ground was the newly built stadium. He had played for the under-19 cricket team of Madhya Pradesh. Shaan had incredible records in almost all the leagues he played. But in the last tournament he had played, one of his weaknesses was discovered. He struggled a bit against left-arm orthodox spin bowlers; neither he nor his coaches had discovered this weakness earlier because he had batted a very minimal number of times against these kinds of bowlers.

After a month of that tournament had ended, a boy named Rudra joined the same cricket academy where Shaan played. Shaan and Rudra became really good friends within a short period of time. Rudra was a left-arm orthodox spinner as well, who had decent bowling figures in recent tournaments, which was perfect for Shaan, as the trials for the under-19 Indian cricket team were in just three months. And he was aware of an insider report that the selectors make batsmen play the kind of bowlers against whom they had struggled in recent tournaments.

Shaan had asked Rudra to bowl to him regularly, as he was weak at playing left-arm orthodox spinners. But during the morning or evening practice sessions, they did not get quite much time to practice together, as they had to do other drills too. So, they decided that they would practice late at night too. They easily got permission to enter the stadium at night, as the security guards of the stadium were known to Shaan. It was only the two of them practicing under the floodlights in the deserted stadium at night. They had practiced for three nights regularly. Though Shaan was still struggling to bat against Rudra, he had improved a bit — at least the ball was touching his bat.

It was the fourth night of practice. Shaan was trying to play some lofted shots; some of them were connecting well with the bat, some were not. Even Rudra was teasing him when the shots didn’t connect. One shot had connected so well that it entered the control room of the stadium near the stands. Shaan jokingly asked Rudra to bring the ball back, as he had hit such a fine shot. Rudra also laughed it off and went there to bring back the ball.

Rudra returned after 5–10 minutes. After coming back, he didn’t utter a single word. He even blinked his eyes less than usual. He was acting quite strangely — Shaan noticed this weird behaviour of his but continued playing a few more overs. Rudra had even stopped teasing Shaan. Then suddenly, Rudra took the ball in his right hand and bowled it. The ball turned so well after bouncing that it directly hit Shaan’s stumps. Shaan was quite shocked to see Rudra bowl with his right arm. He immediately asked Rudra about it. Rudra gave a creepy kind of smile and replied, “Magic, bro!” Everything seemed a bit horrifying, but Shaan was a strong sceptic when it came to ghosts. He just thought that, the perfect ball was a fluke and Rudra was just pranking on him. They decided to go home then, as it was already 1 AM.

Then came the fifth night of practice. Shaan wore his attire as he was about to leave for the stadium and made a phone call to Rudra. Rudra said that he had been going through an extreme fever since the last midnight. Rudra could not join the practice that night, but Shaan decided that he would go to the stadium alone and practice with the help of the bowling machines.

Shaan reached the ground and started practicing. While batting, he hit a really high shot which again landed in the control room. Shaan went there alone to bring the ball back, as it was also the last ball in the bowling machine’s sequence. Shaan was about to enter the control room, but suddenly the room’s door opened automatically, making a loud creaking noise. Then suddenly, Rudra came out of the room with the ball in his hand. Shaan got frightened and shocked at the same moment. He immediately asked Rudra how he had ended up there, as he was sick. Rudra smiled and replied that he was feeling quite better, so he came to the stadium to practice.

Then they started practicing. While they were playing, the huge digital scoreboard of the stadium suddenly turned on and started showing some weird texts like “Jatin Kumar 1978–2024”, “Arif Khan 1985–2025” and some random other names with years. And then Shaan suddenly noticed that Rudra’s arms and shoes were glowing strangely. His fingertips and shoes were full of mud, and they even had some blood stains.

Shaan then asked Rudra, “What’s wrong with you, Rudra?” He replied in a very loud and rasping voice, “Stop right there, we need to talk.” Shaan got frightened and tried to run away, but then he suddenly got trapped within the batting nets. Then finally, Rudra started narrating a story in multiple voices, as he was probably possessed by some spirits. The story was that while the cricket stadium was being built by Butfar Realty, many of the workers were not given their wages accordingly. And when the workers protested against them, many of them were beaten to death by hooligans, and then they were buried inside the stadium, and pillars were built over that soil. This was the reason behind the project facing so many legal delays.

Then Shaan asked what he could do for them. Then the spirits replied that Shaan’s father, Mr. Shanti Lal Rajput — who was the judge of the District and Sessions Court, Jabalpur — was the one who had been heavily bribed by the owners of Butfar Realty and had given the judgement in their favour. Shaan was in complete disbelief and shock, but the spirits said that he was the one who could get them justice. And for proof, he could check his father’s mails with the owners of Butfar Realty, where they had offered the bribe. Shaan was also a strong opposer of injustice.

He agreed to help them. The very next morning, he checked his father’s mails and discovered that all the allegations made by the spirits were eventually true. He immediately made copies of all the mails and transactions and anonymously submitted them to the crime branch. Within a few hours, police officers had reached their place and arrested Mr. Shanti Lal. Then after multiple court trials, Mr. Shanti Lal Rajput got sentenced to 7 years of rigorous imprisonment on charges of corruption. And the owners of Butfar Realty faced life imprisonment due to involvement in multiple crimes like mass killing of workers, wage exploitation, and many other charges.

After all this, Shaan was deeply traumatised, but he did not regret getting his father caught because he was also a corrupt and immoral person. And after all, he had served justice to so many innocent souls. Then one night, in his dreams, he was thanked by all the spirits of the workers, and they also blessed him with a boon that he would never again struggle playing left-arm orthodox spinners and would get selected for the under-19 Indian cricket team. All of these blessings also came true when he stopped struggling against those bowlers and excelled in his under-19 team trials. One day, he also got to know that Rudra had been admitted to the hospital for three days, including the midnight when Shaan had communicated with all the spirits through Rudra’s body. Class- ix , Bhavan’s Tripura Vidyamandir

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