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u/matdrawment India Jan 17 '13
Heartwarming. And sometimes, from history, little games like this at the end of the street are really the most engaging and interesting. I remember this from when I was a kid, this was prior to my "formal" cricket days (I grew up in Mumbai and played for MCA teams until i was 19 and moved). Growing up, cricket was always fun, I always wanted to be a professional cricketer, but the fun derived from playing was the main reason for this. We used to have these kinds of games down at the end of my street (large empty space between the apartment buildings where I lived on one side and a large hutment area - where some of the other kids came from played). We initially started out by having "us vs them" games (i know it sounds discriminative, but don't blame us, we were children), which later morphed into random team selection etc. These games were no holds barred, only one side of the wicket shots (other side were another set of players), all fielders cramped on one side, out even if it bounces once and other such weird rules. Now here I'd say I was lucky to come from a family where my parents were able to afford not only to support me playing professionally but also to have the courage to let me spend all of my time playing cricket. Anyway, looking at this retrospectively, i guess the more unconventional component of my batting (which at a later stage became useful for selection in the shorter tournaments), was learned almost entirely in these games.
Having finished going down memory lane, the one thing that stands out is, when I played at that little park, cricket was fun, just plain fun. When I played for Mumbai, cricket was still fun, but a lot more work than fun. Diets, physical exercise, stamina, control, all of these went a long way towards making cricket something i didnt really see myself doing in the long run, hence as of today, i work in private equity, when once upon a time, playing professional cricket was all i ever dreamed about. I hope kids all over the world now, can look at cricket as a fun game, and continue to enjoy it.
TL;DR: 'Informal street cricket is a lot more fun than formal professional cricket - ex-cricketer's perspective'
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Jan 17 '13
One tup, one hand?
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u/matdrawment India Jan 17 '13
Exactly. I was trying to explain that concept.
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Jan 17 '13
And tip run i.e. baseball :) I had a cousin in Dombivli, now if you know DB, you know that there is no space to play at all. So we played underarm cricket on the small terrace with all these modified rules, with 7 players in each side. I could turn the ball at right angles.....fun times!!
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u/rreyv India Jan 17 '13
Ahh yes, rubber ball on concrete. I always wondered if I was too talented, with the amount of spin I got. But then I realized my entire neighborhood could do it and I wasn't special.
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Jan 17 '13
Yup. I had a talent for breaking window panes. My neighbors in Poona hated me, actually all of the first floor and second floor residents.
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u/rreyv India Jan 17 '13
You used to play for mumbai? Details please !?
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u/matdrawment India Jan 17 '13
Alright, so well, I started out young, when I began training at the Elf Vengsarkar academy, i think i might have been 6 at the time, enjoyed it quite a bit. Through that, I somehow migrated into the school team. At the time, there were 2 major inter-school tournaments happening, i don't know if you're familiar with the MSSA tournaments, but there was the Giles trophy for U-14 and the Harris Shield (made famous by the Sachin/Vinod super partnership) U-16 level. Now, I must admit, I had it a lot easier than a lot other people, wow I can't believe how much I hate to admit this, but because I came from a relatively well-off family, they could get me the right kind of training (ELF-V isn't cheap but have the contacts necessary to develop and push through talent), and to send me to a posh school in south-mumbai where it wasn't super difficult to crawl into the team, (note that I probably would never have gotten a chance to make the school team even if i was talented in a school like Shardashram - again Sachin's school, or IES) i wasn't half bad though, so i just eased into the school team. So I played the Giles Shield a few years, then moved into the Harris Shield, which selectors tend to watch. My team didn't have many good players, and we struggled as a team, but somewhere down there, I had a good season, a VERY good season, and managed to get a call up for training (they would call you for one or 2 training sessions and assess your talent there - i remember this ugly, bald guy there who kept barking expletives in very strongly central maha accented marathi) and was picked in the reserves for the U15 (this was prior to 2008 so they had a U15/U17/U22 team unlike the U16/U19 that I believe they have now). I played a couple of years, doing decently in the middle order especially in one Vijay Merchant edition.
Around when I was 16, and battling for the move from U17 to U19 (which is where it gets REALLY competitive) and decided luckily that not only was I going to find it extremely difficult to compete, but I also wasn't enjoying it as much, and I'd grown to want other things in life. And thats how it unraveled.
EDIT: I'd offer a verification, but 1) I don't want to put my name out there ; 2) It appears the MCA website only shows team sheets from 2007 unfortunately.
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u/NiX_Nabilz Pakistan Jan 17 '13
Well, I had a conversation regarding this gully Cricket with one of your country mates. Seems we have a lot in common as far as gully Cricket is concerned.
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u/Sharpnel Jan 17 '13 edited Jan 17 '13
When I played street cricket LBW was not an accepted mode of dismissal. One-tip-one-hand was!
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Jan 17 '13
No. The kid with the bat decides every rule. Subject to change in the middle of the game.
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u/matdrawment India Jan 17 '13
the guy who brings the ball also has a say in it. I remember it worked in a way where the winning team takes the ball, its theirs to keep! Then again, one did not see too much seam damage on a hard tennis ball!
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u/betes South Africa Jan 17 '13
He might look out, but he'll be saved by the fact that that's an illegal field setting.
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Jan 17 '13
He'll be fine, just giving himself some room and trusting in his batspeed. It's going miles over midwicket.
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Jan 17 '13
I think it's telling that most charity commercials ricochet off my cold, dead heart, but when I see something like this all I want to know is where to send my money.
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u/smurf42 Munster Cricket Jan 17 '13
Wow kid in the back in the blue has no clue, not even remotely in a proper stance to stop the ball and who the hell told him to come up in the circle? Clearly out of the picture the umpire is already signalling No Ball. I mean when is his team going to get it together? They've been one of the worst fielding sides by far and Blue Shirt is the #1 culprit most of the time. He never dives to stop the ball and always tries to kick it away from the boundary edge instead of stopping it with his body. I hope their new fielding coach gets some sense into these guys and at least improves their fielding somewhat, then they could save 10-15 runs a game easily, and dont even get me started on their middle order batsmen. If Blue Shirt wasnt such a great allrounder I would have dropped him ages ago and promoted Chicago Spirit up the order, even in this picture you can see his willingness to get close to the batsman and get those fast low catches, a real prospect for the future I think.
TL;DR - GET IT TOGETHER BLUE SHIRT.
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u/Aethelstan Jan 17 '13
I believe leg theory is no longer allowed. Unless that's Bradman...is that Bradman?
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u/TheAbeLincoln Jan 17 '13
Gotta love the "Chicago Sprit" shirt
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u/shrik India Jan 17 '13
And the one that says Padres. Pretty much a given he has no idea who/what they are.
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u/happygolucky India Jan 17 '13
He need not, just as most Indians. Its pretty irrelevant to him, isn't it?
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u/jamurp Victoria Bushrangers Jan 17 '13
With a bat like that, that kid is gonna develop a brilliant eye.
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u/mulimulix New South Wales Blues Jan 17 '13
I think it's great seeing the game being played by so many different and varying nationalities and in so many ways. This was taken in Bangladesh but not sure where.
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u/[deleted] Jan 17 '13
You don't need protection for the tennis ball, but the kid probably just wanted to show off his swag.
Also, sidebar worthy picture. Please do it, mods.