Sydney Stories - Week 64

Hello,

Hope you had a good week.

The week just zoomed by without much notice. The highlight though was this weekend.

Don't remember when the last time was I held a cricket bat in a proper pitch. Probably the last game ever played in Gandhi Stadium as "Leaping Leopards"? Somewhere around 1987 maybe... Of course I am not counting all the garage cricket played at Yercaud or Jagadeeswaran St. I guess even that stopped sometime in 1996. 

So, after all these years I was involved in a game of cricket over the weekend. There is a group of friends here who have formed a sports club here in Sydney - Sydney Super Sonics Sport Club. It is actually a registered not-for-profit organization with probably about 100+ members. We were introduced to the club by my neighbours and we were playing shuttle with them on Friday nights for the last few months. Each year this club organizes some games / matches or the other throughout the year.This year, this was the first tournament - Sydney Premier League (SPL 2011).

Given my "interest" in Cricket, I was initially the least interested in participating in this. However decided to give it a shot for the heck of it. It turned out to be quite an interesting day out at the "Jones Park Oval". This was a very family oriented game organized as you would realize shortly. It was a 10 over per innings with  10 team members in each team. There were 6 teams in total split across in 2 pools. Yes, all very professional but yet quite fun. Here's a sample of the rules of the game:

1. The maximum number of runs scored off a female bowling can be 4 even if the ball clears the rope without pitching.
2. Player will have to retire after hitting 25 runs. He or she can then bat if there is a fall of all wickets
1. Players retiring should be getting back on to the field in the same order 
2. First player being taken out of the field should enter first at any situation
3. Girls will be awarded 1 run for touching the ball with the bat.
4. Any running runs by girls will be doubled.i.e 1 run will be considered as 2 runs and so on.
5. Each player in the team must bowl 1 over.
6. No LBWs and leg byes, Over-throws and byes are there.
7. Under-arm and regular bowling  NOT allowed, only overarm throwing allowed.

They have tried to promote utmost family read...women participation in the game. Something tells me that this is probably a plot to increase the interest level with the women folk so that the guys (the serious cricketers) can get on with their weekend games without much of a hassle.

Uma and I were in different teams. Multiple reasons for this, the key being one of us can watch over the kids at any point of time. The game was held in a proper cricket ground with a pitch with artificial lawn laid out. The people were so enthusiastic over the last few days on this. We all had a team name, logo, a punch line, a uniform and what not. I was in the "Fire Blazers" team and Uma was in "United Knights". Lunch (Chicken / Veggie briyani) was provided for the players with soft drinks / water to be purchased from the organizers.

The games were well organized as well. The captains obviously knew what they were doing rotating people around during the innings giving a fair share to all team members to bat and bowl. That usually will be the dampener for me for "liking" cricket because I've probably not given a decent chance then. I was able to score a few runs within the short time I could face the ball and took a wicket - some good soul caught the ball. :-) 

We had 2 chances in a day long league. The first time we won over a technicality where the opponent team supposedly forgot one of the rules and allowed their star batsmen to come back (out of turn). Lost the 2nd one though. I couldn't believe that I stood there for so long playing even in the rain!!

Some photos taken by me have been uploaded. Hopefully I will get to see some photos taken by our official photographer.

Life IS different in Sydney. :-)

Have A Great Week.

C