Street Cricket
I wrote this sometime back in some other blog of mine. Read on....
I chanced upon an article in wikipedia on Street Cricket. (Its very funny, do read it.) Almost all of us would have played Street cricket . It reminded me of my childhood days when Street Cricket was an integral part of my life. I will share some of the incidents in my life that are associated with street cricket.
Incident 1 - Summer Vacation, Sixth grade: One day while playing in our street, my friend hit the ball straight down the road, and it went quite far. It was my friend's turn to pick the ball. Since it went quite far, my friend got a lift in a two-wheeler, ridden by a Sardarji, which was passing by that road. When the spot came he asked the Sardarji to stop. Apparently, the Sardarji did not understand Tamil and he didn't stop. My friend feared that Sardarji was kidnapping him, and screamed "KIDNAP, KIDNAP, KAPATHUNGO…” and he jumped from the vehicle. Next day I saw him with a plaster around his left arm. His bone got fractured. :D
Incident 2 - First Encounter with Cricket Ball: This happened when I was in ninth grade. We found an half-torn cricket ball on the road, and were thrilled at the prospect of playing with the cricket ball for the first time. We didn’t have any kit with us at that time. Being a brave guy that I am, I asked my friend to bowl and took the crease to bat. He was the fastest bowler that I had seen until that day, and I had no inhibition in facing him because I didn’t know the adverse effects of being hit by a cricket ball. The ball was bowled, I took the front foot, raised my bat, and before I realized that I have wrongly placed my foot the ball hit my front foot & bang…. the next second I was on the ground, shouting at the top of my voice.
Incident 3 - My first ever bet match: I was in fifth grade when I first played a bet match. It was a ten rupee bet match between 5-A and 5-B. :D Even before the match started we started thinking how to spend the twenty rupees we will have after the match. All of us unanimously decided to have Rasna. (It was the most expensive stuff we could think of at that time. It cost around Rs. 1.50. :) ) I had a tough time convincing my parents that I was only going to buy a pencil with that rupee. Bet matches are strict no-no with parents. After receiving the usual scolding, warnings and reprimands, I was handed a rupee. Somehow our team collected ten rupees and we played the match. After a tough battle, we lost the match & our hopes of having rasna crashed with that. :(
Those were the days. We played cricket with anything we could lay our hands on. Whoever brought a bat was the captain, and whatever he said were the rules of the game. I still play cricket, but somehow its just not the same as how it used to be. Today we don't fear to play with cricket ball, have enough money to play bet matches, & of course, we don't fear that someone would kidnap us. May be that's what is spoiling the fun.
Up Next: The Philosophers of My Life. Coming soooon..
I chanced upon an article in wikipedia on Street Cricket. (Its very funny, do read it.) Almost all of us would have played Street cricket . It reminded me of my childhood days when Street Cricket was an integral part of my life. I will share some of the incidents in my life that are associated with street cricket.
Incident 1 - Summer Vacation, Sixth grade: One day while playing in our street, my friend hit the ball straight down the road, and it went quite far. It was my friend's turn to pick the ball. Since it went quite far, my friend got a lift in a two-wheeler, ridden by a Sardarji, which was passing by that road. When the spot came he asked the Sardarji to stop. Apparently, the Sardarji did not understand Tamil and he didn't stop. My friend feared that Sardarji was kidnapping him, and screamed "KIDNAP, KIDNAP, KAPATHUNGO…” and he jumped from the vehicle. Next day I saw him with a plaster around his left arm. His bone got fractured. :D
Incident 2 - First Encounter with Cricket Ball: This happened when I was in ninth grade. We found an half-torn cricket ball on the road, and were thrilled at the prospect of playing with the cricket ball for the first time. We didn’t have any kit with us at that time. Being a brave guy that I am, I asked my friend to bowl and took the crease to bat. He was the fastest bowler that I had seen until that day, and I had no inhibition in facing him because I didn’t know the adverse effects of being hit by a cricket ball. The ball was bowled, I took the front foot, raised my bat, and before I realized that I have wrongly placed my foot the ball hit my front foot & bang…. the next second I was on the ground, shouting at the top of my voice.
Incident 3 - My first ever bet match: I was in fifth grade when I first played a bet match. It was a ten rupee bet match between 5-A and 5-B. :D Even before the match started we started thinking how to spend the twenty rupees we will have after the match. All of us unanimously decided to have Rasna. (It was the most expensive stuff we could think of at that time. It cost around Rs. 1.50. :) ) I had a tough time convincing my parents that I was only going to buy a pencil with that rupee. Bet matches are strict no-no with parents. After receiving the usual scolding, warnings and reprimands, I was handed a rupee. Somehow our team collected ten rupees and we played the match. After a tough battle, we lost the match & our hopes of having rasna crashed with that. :(
Those were the days. We played cricket with anything we could lay our hands on. Whoever brought a bat was the captain, and whatever he said were the rules of the game. I still play cricket, but somehow its just not the same as how it used to be. Today we don't fear to play with cricket ball, have enough money to play bet matches, & of course, we don't fear that someone would kidnap us. May be that's what is spoiling the fun.
Up Next: The Philosophers of My Life. Coming soooon..
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