Howwzaatt.....

Recently I was nominated as Cricket in-charge at my company may be because of my experience as a sport secretary at my college and performance at inter-corporate matches!!! At that juncture I was asked to speak a few words on how I felt. I started off with a few words and later came to realized how important the game as a part of my life was. The talked spilled over half an hour and amazingly it became the most interactive monologue!! So I thought I can share some here.
Cricket is not just a game. It’s a passion, especially of the lower middle class kids. I was one when I was a kid. The streets were the playgrounds because there weren’t any real playgrounds at Triplicane, Chennai. The streets there are extremely narrow and infested with the cows, callously chewing on posters.
For many reasons, Galli cricket is undervalued and forgotten in time. The hardships faced while playing the game on street needs to be acknowledged.

Firstly, the paucity of pitch. The roads usually are narrow and so a pitch across the breadth of the road is too small. Hence we have to play at cross roads, so that the diagonal of the intersection becomes the length of the pitch. Here again, to catch the pitch, one has to rush back to the spot, without even changing one’s school uniform (obviously mother gets furious later.. for the stealthy escape I stage). Yet being first at spot without having enough playing members cannot guarantee that you wont kicked out by rival groups (The back street boys).
There are specific criteria for choosing such pitches (which anyway are scarce)

1 Should have a lamp post or telephone post so that a great game can be played with keeper in position
2 Traffic at the junction should be as less as possible (traffic includes stray dogs, cattle and old ladies)
3 The houses in the area should not have way too old people who cannot tolerate the noise level of the game. These old people have a wired way of chasing us away. For the first few times, the just come out and shout. Then threaten to deposit a complaint against us, with out parents first and then with the corporation of the city (if not police) later. Finally when all those fail, they just stand outside. Wait there in ambush to be hit by the ball and then they take it and never give back. Thanks to mega serials the situation is changing slightly.
4 Only in rare occasions are stumps available and we play axially. In this case the possibility of breaking glass windows increases four folds. One breakage and the pitch can’t be occupied for another 2 months or so.

Not just the infrastructure that is a short coming. The equipments themselves are. The economic condition debars us from buying a tennis ball (aka cover ball). More often that not, it is a rubber ball or a plastic ball to play with. Which one to use, depends on the pitch and the houses nearby and its occupants. Even though one ball costs 3-5 rupees, the loss is detrimental as we couldn’t afford much. If you lose it, you cant home for the fear of interrogated and punished later. And for another month, you never get a new one.
Bats too are a costly affair. Mostly it would be a birthday present. The trend changed later with ‘boost’ and ‘Maltova’ offering free bats with their 1kg jars. A typical middle class mentality mandates that a new bat can seldom be drawn out from its polyethylene scabbard, unless the cover naturally exposes the wood. Only after such offers could the runner hope to have a bat, else the runner always carries a stick. Such bats are called ‘maavu’ bat since they crumble to powder soon after and the first part to be broken is the handle which gets loosened after the very first use.
Stumps are out of question. So the lamp posts or else a pile of side walk stones or an aesthetically sketched graffiti is the stump.
The game itself comes with its own restriction and rules over and above the aforementioned stipulations.

1..The teams shall be decided as per the acumen of the senior most guys in the gang. You have no say in which team you want to play. You are much like a techie who gets no say.

2.. The chap who brings the bat, always gets to open the innings and never sits out anytime, never scolded for dropping catches and never criticized for taking a single on the last ball of the over. (Does this guy remind you of your boss’s favorite subordinate?)

3.There is always a hero in every team, mostly the senior most who decide on marking the boundaries, who has the final verdict in case of discrepancies, who claims to know all the rules in cricket and has an unquestionable authority to screw you. (you are right… he is the boss)

4. The pre-requisites to play in such team are to be the ball boy for n number of games, come in as a substitute fielder when ever wanted and get out voluntarily when signaled to. (probation period)

The greatest achievement of galli cricket, apart from the management lessons is the customization of cricket rules.

1 Hitting the ball beyond a specified boundary or onto balcony etc is declared OUT.
2 One can appeal against the pace of the ball by simply saying “fast”
3 Bowler can appeal against the batsman ‘covering the stumps’. At least 1.5 stumps should be visible.
4 At the runner’s end, baseball rules apply for getting someone run out. The rule is called “current”. One doesn’t need to collect the ball and hit the stumps, Instead just stand on the stones (runner end stumps) and collect the ball.
5 Depending on the no of players available, both the teams may be forced to field together (major source of trouble once the batting team member drops a catch or miss fields)
6 The ‘wall catch’, ‘one pitch catch’ and ‘one pitch one hand’ catches.
7 There also is a provision for “additail” (Hurt –retired). It’s a concept of socialism among kids. If one had been batting for too long then he “additails” and the next guy in line goes in. It is also used as a means for substitution.
8 “baby overs” (overs with 3 balls)
9 “last man gage” (last wicket can play alone. Partner not necessary)
10 If the teams are not even, the odd guy becomes a “joker” (joker bats and fields for both the teams but cannot bowl.) It is every ones dream to be a joker. Ludicrous but true.

Though it is these guyz who make the street lively all through the evening, they are also the most hated in their neighborhood. But ironically these passionate kids take pride in representing their street in inter-street bet matches. They are the most patriotic ones on the street, they are the most passionate people and sometimes it is on the streets where u can spot a Wasim Akram’s of the future.
By that time, few of my audience had already made a trip through their memory “lanes”. It was a trip back to childhood where cricket was the purpose of life. There was a lull after I finished. The gaze on their faces suggested that some of them were reunited with their long lost love. So was I as I looked down on my feet, upon which the tar roads had made multiple marks. A wound so pleasurable to posses for a life time.