If looking at stars on a clear, moonless summer night, you start telling them apart. There are at least 30 different cricket matches on, each containing its own constellation of players, across the dusty maiden called Shiva Park in the heart of Mumbai.
It was a hot afternoon in October and I had ventured with a journalist friend to the famous ground in Dada. It was a bit unnerving to wander into this unstructured yet strictly codified world, though it was a scene straight out of my youth, when I had played on corporation grounds and colony fields, rooftops and raggedy streets.
It was hard to know where one match ended, the other began, the essence of the games soon came into view. It was like dusting off an old photo album, reliving memories. Denuded stumps - no bails, of course; stones and chap pals marking the creases; Cosco tennis balls of varying wear; bats with twine coming off their handles. They were all there.
Apart from the Mumbai skyline looming in the background, all the characteristics of my childhood matches were on display. The guy with the stutter-step run-up; the man boy who bosses the bowling; the bowler with an odd action; the kid who just wants to field; the kid who gets to do nothing but field; the kid who is too small and never gets to do anything; the kid who is too big and gets to do everything; the cross-bat logger; the dogged blocker; funky actions; finger spin magicians; they were all there.
The game requires a very small monetary investment, with the mandatory entities being a ball and shoveled piece of wood called the bat / stumps. Tennis balls, specially made for cricket and slightly heavier than usual tennis balls, are normally used. (Rubber balls are sometimes preferred because they are cheaper.) Used broom sticks or canes serve as stumps at the batsman's end, while a piece of brick serves as the stumps at the bowler's end. When sticks and canes are not readily available, two stones with a gap of around 10 inches are kept on the ground. The players then assume the stumps to be at an imaginary height (usually above the waist level of the batsman). This leads to many interesting events, whether the ball would have hit the stumps or not had the stumps been there for real. Sometimes the stumps are drawn on the walls: the advantages being, there isn't a need for a wicket keeper and the ball doesn't run away even when the batsman misses.
An interesting aspect of street cricket is the rules that apply while playing. These rules have been devised to cause the least public inconvenience while playing. While hitting a ball as far as you can in a cricket stadium is rewarded by runs, doing the same might shatter a few glass panes and thus put the future of the match in jeopardy.
The rules that are followed while playing street cricket are an intriguing feature of the game. These guidelines were developed to any disruption to other players. Street Cricket is played under a number of novel rules, such as Current, Half-crease, One-Man Kanji, and Last-Man Kanji, which add to the game's intrigue. In a cricket stadium, hitting the ball as far as you can is rewarded with runs, but doing so could break a few glass panes and endanger the game. As a result, batsmen with extremely aggressive impulses stand a very good probability of being quickly out. Every location has a particular significance when the Wall-Catch rule is in effect. During breaks, this game is also played on the grounds of most schools.
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