Yesterday was Ammar's first Cricket Coaching class. It is conducted by Springfield Cricket Club here in Chelmsford. Chelmsford being the headquarters of Essex Cricket, there is a lot of interest in Cricket here, even among English kids.
Some 30 kids had turned up aged around 6-11 years. This included 6-7 Indian/Asian boys. The ground called 'Coronation Park' is absolutely beautiful as are most grounds in England.
The practice was fun. It was with tennis ball. They have a innovative way of making the kids bat and run every ball. I could make out that in this group there were two Indian brothers who seemed to be way ahead of everyone else. Maybe they are practicing for a few years.
They have under 9 and under 11 teams who play with hard ball with full kit including helmets. Those teams were undergoing their fielding drills on the practice pitches.
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All this was just imaginable when I started playing Cricket in my childhood in Kanke, Ranchi. We would play with hard ball which we called 'Corket' ball. This was made of Cork and would hurt quite a lot when it hit you. We didn't have pads either. We would play the whole day just for the love of the game but our technique never developed in the process. It was village green Cricket.
We would challenge the neighbouring mohalla for matches. These matches were hard fought and would draw a small crowd. The losing team will hurl accusations that the other team 'borrowed' good players from other Mohallas. We used to call such players बोरो प्लेयर. These matches were played for money even though the money was a mere pittance. Each team member from both teams will contribute something like 50 paise each. The winner will get all the money collected which will not be more than 10 Rupees. They will collect this money to buy equipment.
There was no concept of LBW in these matches. The umpire will be someone from the batting side and it was expected that he will tilt towards his team.
We will play 15-20 such matches in a season. The teams comprising a combination of competent players and others who joined to make the numbers. Some barely knew anything about the game. I remember one of boys would say 'Humko Borolene (Bowling!!) do na yaar'......another one appealing 'आउट दाइल '......
Those were the days.........
Some 30 kids had turned up aged around 6-11 years. This included 6-7 Indian/Asian boys. The ground called 'Coronation Park' is absolutely beautiful as are most grounds in England.
The practice was fun. It was with tennis ball. They have a innovative way of making the kids bat and run every ball. I could make out that in this group there were two Indian brothers who seemed to be way ahead of everyone else. Maybe they are practicing for a few years.
They have under 9 and under 11 teams who play with hard ball with full kit including helmets. Those teams were undergoing their fielding drills on the practice pitches.
All this was just imaginable when I started playing Cricket in my childhood in Kanke, Ranchi. We would play with hard ball which we called 'Corket' ball. This was made of Cork and would hurt quite a lot when it hit you. We didn't have pads either. We would play the whole day just for the love of the game but our technique never developed in the process. It was village green Cricket.
We would challenge the neighbouring mohalla for matches. These matches were hard fought and would draw a small crowd. The losing team will hurl accusations that the other team 'borrowed' good players from other Mohallas. We used to call such players बोरो प्लेयर. These matches were played for money even though the money was a mere pittance. Each team member from both teams will contribute something like 50 paise each. The winner will get all the money collected which will not be more than 10 Rupees. They will collect this money to buy equipment.
There was no concept of LBW in these matches. The umpire will be someone from the batting side and it was expected that he will tilt towards his team.
We will play 15-20 such matches in a season. The teams comprising a combination of competent players and others who joined to make the numbers. Some barely knew anything about the game. I remember one of boys would say 'Humko Borolene (Bowling!!) do na yaar'......another one appealing 'आउट दाइल '......
Those were the days.........
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