So the other day I was talking cricket with NC and he asked me if I have ever played cricket myself. I recalled the following stuff -
1. Improvised cricket - the gear, a ping pong "bat" and ball. The location, my aunt's living room. The rules, only legitimate delivery is a full toss. Once you score 75, you retire. If you hit the wall below the tube light, it's a 4. If you hit above it, it's a 6. And if you hit the tubelight...you run away as fast as you can!!
I never reached the retiring score in that one.
2. Book Cricket - That does not need much explanation, does it?
3. Leg Cricket - Don't know if anyone else has ever played this one. My PT instructor used to say it was his invention. So basically, it was played with a volleyball. The bowler rolled it to the batter, ten pin bowling style. And the batter(kicker?) kicked it away for runs.
The acceptable modes of dismissal were bowled, run out and caught (yeah, no lbw's here :D). If a fielder caught the ball on one bounce with one hand, that was out too.
I did rock this one!
4. Cricket on top of Rala Mandal hill - OK. This one was a lot of fun. A bunch of us college friends hiked up the Rala Mandal Hill near Indore. Playing area was very limited (think of a badminton court). Due to lack of space, the rules were
- if you managed to put bat on ball you scored a run..unless of course, you were caught.
- You were out caught if the fielder caught the ball after one bounce.
- You could get bowled out.
- Nothing like a run out 'coz you are not actually scoring by running. You just switched strike at the end of the over.
- It was important not the slash hard at the ball, coz if a fielder could not stop it, it would defo go down the hill and that would be the end of the game! And then you would have to treat everyone to Ghamandi's Lassi (a popular place in Indore) :)
"Ok...this is fine" , I hear you say. "We've all done that or something similar...but have you ever played real cricket? The 11-players a side, being played on a field, with the normal rules applying?"
Ladies and gentlemen, I have...and here is the story of The Day I Played Cricket
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23 comments:
Awesome build up to the real game.. u have also given me an idea for a post.. will do one soon :-)
Thanks Q...can't wait to hear your story :)
rala mandal hill evokes memories of my home town. i just got nostalgic.
sam(Arm Ball))
Rala Mandal!!
What???
A cricket fan from Indore who blogs *all excited*
You are bookmarked!!!
BTW, did you play French cricket?
Sam, SB
Indore is a special part of my life...those 4 years spent there were my Summer of '69....I am glad I got a chance to recount those happy memories through these posts :)
And thanks SB...keep coming back!
Otts
I have played something like French cricket...I used to have a toy tennis set with plastic racquets (size and weight wise they were the same as actual ones)...we used a plastic ball...
I don't know if he remembers it now, but Sameer Bhaiya (of the Eye of Cricket fame) was part of the team :)
Thanks for helping me remember the rala mandal game! and yes you should play french cricket ..
Hey, its Samir! :)
And not only do I remember the games, I even have photos! If I find them, I'll scan them and post them (yes, this is a threat :))
I remember when we did this - December 1994, on the roof in Bhopal, overlooking the lake, in beautiful winter sunshine. Man, what memories.
I also remember thinking during the game that I had figured out why India drew so many tests: everyone wanted to bat, no one wanted to bowl!
some things never change eh, Varun? chalo, at least I did not have to work too hard to make u remember that game :)
@Bhaiya
Sorry for the mistake :)
...and uh...lets keep the pics in the family, ok? So no posting...but do send them to me if u find them...
and you have some memory...even I did not remember the correct year..wow...was it really '94! Such fun times :)
I was just kidding about posting them - that stuff is dynamite! :) I remember the date quite clearly because I tend to remember my India vacations quite well.
I think I can find the photos in one of my albums.
Cheers,
Samir
Great to see that your cricket passion has only grown over the years... And yes, I do have this vague memory of hearing about this match between us (the management gurus) and them (techie types).. (wink)
y does the improvised cricket with a ping pong "bat" and ball sounds familiar....was this "bat" of urs by any chance red in colour.......????
@Bhaiya
phew...u gave me a scare there :)
like i said, if u have them scanned, or can scan them, then I am very interested.
Hey Anju...good to see you here :)
Oh, you remember that game, do you? Well, don't rub it in too much ok ;-)
@Sid
hmmm...I don't remember the colour of the bat!! But I can tell why it sounds familiar to you...it's b'coz u were part of the team..
So all games but cricket.....
BTW nice story......
But playng cricket in the hot humid chennai sun is no fun esspecially after you get bowled for a duck forst ball and your opening over goes for 16 runs.....I figured that out this friday when my school played in the TNCA competition.
Anyway Cheers;
Hey Chris
Bad luck there! Was it a knockout match or do u still have hope to go further?
And i agree...it is hard to play in that Chennai weather...I was there on a vacation few years ago...it was hard to step out of the hotel in the afternoon, let alone play some cricket!
Yeah...Bad luck...it was a knock out so well we were eh er ...knocked out....
i know....it's too humid in chennai.....but atleast now I get a little rest from playing cricket and back to blogging cricket. i got a ligament tear.. :D
Anyway,
Cheers.
Hi
I would like to contact the Blogger is there any way of getting an email address of his/her, kindly reply to my email hashim.abbas@gmail.com, awaiting for your reply.
Hey I had not read this before... my loss.
Great post!
thanks dear..glad you enjoyed it :)
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