Cricket in our younger days!!

[jaiganes]

1980s and 1990s were exciting times for kids playing cricket in cities and small towns. The exposure was increased by Doordarshan's live coverages and special cricket shows on TV. Added to that were empty maidans available to play all kinds of cricket, right from the rubber ball cricket to cricket ball cricket (for those who can afford). The whole process of accumulating a team, taking the team to the vast maidans in cycles, collecting money for buying bat or balls and the 'friendly' and bet matches played between rivals, was terribly exciting. The day was made more exciting and thrilling if there was a rain and the game was played on skiddy outdoors!!! Also the occasional injury to a team mate due to a reckless throw or a spiteful pitch, we have seen it all in our younger days, haven't we? Let us come up with nostalgia of cricket! A gentleman's game which we played like barbarians!!!

[blahblah]

Jaiganesh,I had a tough time choosing between rubber cork and tennis balls.I have really enjoyed playing with both.

[hehehewalrus]

Visit my website on cricket made 6 years ago and too lazy to update. But it has tons of stuff

www.angelfire.com/tn/justkool/cricket.html

[hehehewalrus]

played with rubber ball - age 5
switched to cork ball - age 6-11
switched to cricket ball - age 12
left cricket - age 12-14
got scared and moved to rubber ball - age 14
got even more scared and moved to plastic ball(JOYBALL) - age 15

[jaiganes]

I hada nasty experience with the hard ball, which we used to call 'mandai' ball. I had a very nasty experience with that ball. It has good grip, and since it is made of one piece, it does not break off even after roug use for a month. it is heavier than normal 8 ounce cricket ball (hence the name 'mandai' ball) and offspinners like it a lot. Being an off spinner myself, I throughly enjoyed bowling it. Since it is heavier, it comes relatively slower in the air, but due to its imperfections in seam area, grips a lot, thereby getting more bite. Once, my brother was bowling and being a typical tailender, I had the omnious task of scoring some ten runs in that over in a bad light. My brother who bowls medium pace, lost the control over the ball and it came as a beamer. For a split second , i thought the ball went somewhere else and a couple of milliseconds later, BANG it landed on my forehead!! I fell down unconscious for a couple of minutes. My brother was literally in tears!! Luckily I just had a bout of head ache. From then on we decided to just chuck and play defensively when we had to play with mandai ball!! Recently from our previous company, we played some matches in ITPL ground some matches. It was a mat in place of a pitch. We had practised the whole week in a nearby ground. The surprise was that, the cricket ball picks up speed in mat more than a normal pitch. I hope more people can discuss the subtle difference like this and other nostalgia. HHHW! I could not see your site due to stupid network filter policies, I will look at that once I get back home!

[aravindhan]

Rubber ball cricket, beyond a doubt.

I remember that glorious day when I passed Don Bradman's tally of 29 centuries, long before Gavaskar dreamed of doing so. I wanted to immediately write to Wisden and the Guinness' Book to tell them to correct their records, and my parents had the unenviable task of convincing me not to. I don't remember how they managed, but for a couple of years, my relatives had to be careful to give me due credit when cricketing records were being discussed.

[hehehewalrus]

[jaiganes]

My be we can ask wisden to add you to maximum winner of rubbers!!!! Anyways tell me more where you used to play and with what kind of teams? your record is not counted if you say that all 29 were against your cousins who were older than you and didn't want to offend you by giving you out. So count out extra gaajis and tell me the truth!!!!

[hehehewalrus]

More important question, what is the size of the boundary? And what is the number of fielders?
In my case, a straight drive that crosses midpitch is a single and anything beyond the bowler is a brace

[jaiganes]

Whenever forced with sitations like lack of space and lack of enough players to make up the number, we used to play "One side, One pitch caught " cricket. The shots on one side of the wicket only will be eligible for runs and if a fielder catches the ball on single bounce, then it is considered as a catch and the batsman will be out. We had great fun playing this. In fact it helped us play shots along the ground or shots which were placed well clear of a fielder. So the drive became perfect and the placement skill was also enhanced. For the bowlers, it helped them to pitch short of good length and on one side of the wicket. Has anyone else played such variations of cricket?