Childhood Story – The Days When We Thought We Are Cricket Stars
Photo credit: OldGreySeaWolf from morguefile.com
It was the time when I and my friends were kids. I was living in a colony then. The life was very simple then for us. Every day we used to wake up early in the morning, take bath, have breakfast and leave for school. Then we used to get back to home from school tired and hungry. And after having lunch and taking some rest ,our true relieving life used to start which used disconnect us from the hectic school life, this thing used to be the time when me and my colony friends used to play cricket at 4.30pm.
First of all this thing used to start with one of the friends calling the other one by going to his house, then those two would call the third one and then those three would call the forth one, likewise it used to continue till we all reached to the ninth one as we were group of nine.
Then we all would go to buy the ball. That time we always used to search for the rubber balls of “hero” , “stumper”, etc but as time passed we switched to red “cosco” tennis ball. Now let’s continue our story. Then ball was bought ,we all used to have a fight of excuses for not paying for the ball but at last one or two used to voluntarily pay for the ball. The bat and stumps were never a issue for us as one bat of anyone was enough for the whole group for playing and in case of stumps, we used to play with our colony stumps with which also the big guys of our colony also used to play ,so, when the stumps were not available for us we used to go for bricks and stones as stumps.
Then comes the turn of our “ own made cricket rules “. The rules were as follow:
“ The one who opens the batting can’t open the bowling “
“ All the players of both the batting and bowling side have to field. “
“ If someone hits the ball to anyone’s house or breaks anyone’s windows or something then he is given out. “
The day when less of us were available for playing, then we didn’t used to play in teams but individually and for that also we had our own rules. To decide who will play in which order we had a “lottery numbering” .
In “lottery numbering“ behind one boy the other boys would show different number of fingers to set order of batting of the players, for example, if one shows three fingers behind the boy and if the boy tells the name of Ramesh then ramesh would have to bat at no. 3 after the no.1 and no. 2 batsman would get out. So, the boy having the first number used to bat first and and the boy having the last number used to bowl. And in the next match the order was decided according to the number of runs scored by the players. Another rule while playing individually was “ the batsman could score only in one given side of the ground,the runs scored on the other side of the ground was not counted. “
Now let’s talk about how the boys in the group were.
There was one who always took out mistakes of everyone in every over throughout the match.
There was one best player who was almost unbeatable in every match.
There was one who was the best fielder and the another one who was the best bowler in the group.
There was also one who would give his commentary on almost every ball.
Those days were awesome. During those playing times it felt like the world was ours and in that world we were the cricket stars. I still remember how after every match we used to discuss why he played like this, he should have played like that,etc. and when we used to go through the stairs of our house then we used to feel like we are going to the pavilion after playing our innings. I always miss those days and I will always. Those days will always remain in a very special place in my memories and heart.
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