For past few weeks we have been experimenting with the double wicket format. It has really caught on I think. Epecially when we have just a few guys - its great to have everone involved in the game.
But with summer its building up..we are getting more people to play- . I would appreciate it even more if we had more particpation from students of other backgrounds than south asian, as that helps getting in new talent and spreading the word about the game. Well lets keep our fingers crossed.
There is an effort to add another contraption to the game...STUMPS ...real stumps ..lets see we are working on getting them. Hopefully we will have atleast 3 stumps up and running that can be used without creating un-necessary work. I say that because in my expirience,sometimes the stumps could be a painful addition because they are so hard to stay put especially in absence of soil or sand..which is the case with our playing area.
But I guess we can work around it...I really hope the stump thing works out . It is going to make some more people more curious. You know, its much more than the recycle trash bins that we use as stumps.
So long.
So... Friday this past week was uneventful accept one of our enthusiatic cricketers might have hurt himself slipping over those awful granite benches by Northrop.The weather played folly again, the number of people who show up for a game is directy proportional to the temperature.However, cricket zealots like myself and couple others do show up all the same and battle dreary winds and rain.
Well , like I said ther were just a couple of us this last week and came guy who was curious about what we were up to. We offered him the bat and in true all American style , he held it like a baseball bat and I thought, well this guys not going to connect with the ball. Low and behold not only this guy connect but he hit the ball to all parts of Northrup and I was amazed by the amount of power he put behind each shot.
I hope we get to see more of him in the future..hope fully this Friday. He did tell me that he will join us next Friday...Well there are so many guys-bystanders who try there hand at cricket, who say they will join us but we have not had much luck with these bystanders showin up. Well, the weather has something to do withn it...may the rain gods not bless us please!
Anyways there has been more talk about intramural cricket and I am really excited about ithe prospects. I hope there are others who feel the same way. We will see how it goes....On another note....I tried making a tape ball this week with some duct tape . I must mention , I had never done something like that and I dont think I should ever do it again...When I was kid we played with something called Rubber balls and all this art of tape ball making is alien to me. Hopefully someone knows to do that well..may be I will learn...just may be...anyways thats a self critique for change.
Have great week..see you guys on hopefully on a bright and sunny Friday.
..have great week folks.
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/uofmcricket/
While we veterans (ref to Nadir, Yogi and Shiva) are playing alright a lot of the American students who play cricket with us are showing fantastic improvements. I must say that couple of them can generate a pace that hardly any of us can produce. I was more impressed by the power that the my American peers can put behind their shots.
I feel South Asians are skillful but somehow do not have the genetic make up of the Caucasian or African and thus lag behind in what one may call power play.
An analogy would be the Roddicks and Hewitts in Tennis all of whom serve at an unprecedented pace however that cannot be said my hero of yesteryearsof Mcnroe but he was skillful so also the Indian Tennis great...Vijay Amritraj (no power play here..pure elegance).I loved Becker he had skills and power..they did call him boom boom Becker..didnt they?.(I may be biased here)
Its an interesting contest when we (asians with caucasians) play cricket --its sort of skill versus power -and the day a player shows command of both skill and power you have a Tendulkar, a Lara, a Afridi or even oldies like Botham or Richards or Imran Khan.
Yesterday, we played a unique version of the game called double wicket it was so fun! I guess if we dont have too many players this is a good thing to pursue and keep playing.Keeps things interesting that just practicing.
I am glad to see overall improvement in my fellow American cricketers. There is some talk of intramural cricket , I hope it happens that be so much fun.
Well all in all guys keep it up.Great shot! Great job!
A word of caution there are one to many people with graduation ceremonies of late we muct be careful so that we avoid accidentally hitting the bystanders.
Well, there were couple of us who played cricket this Friday, on the not so sunny and often cloudy day.But I am glad that we had about 5-6 people showing up and playing some serious cricket. We experimented with leg spin bowling and how to bat effectively negating the spin on the ball. It wast fun for me to be able to spin the ball and most often than not get the batsman to give me a puzzled look.However, I must admit I was also hit all around the ground ..its all a great learning expirience.
Felt like an intellectual dual at time sort of like a game of Chess. Well may be going to far now....with this. But here is an interesting anecdote,this old lady who was strolling on the Northrop lawns walked up to me as I was batting and said that watching us play cricket reminded her of the colonial British India and Elephants .
I understand the colonial association , however Elephants?? Oh well, all we had fun, hopefully it will be nice and sunny for another great day of Cricket next Friday at Northrop.