Games Schoolboys Played- Cricket lovely Cricket

by J. Godwin Perera

‘Cricket, lovely cricket At Lord’s where I saw it Cricket lovely cricket At Lord’s where I saw it Yardley tried his best But Goddard won the test They gave the crowd plenty fun Second test and West Indies won With those little pals of mine Ramadhin and Valentine’

(Lovely is sometimes written as “luvverly”)

This calypso was written to celebrate the West Indies 326 run victory against England in the second Test at Lord’s in 1950. The first of those two little pals Ramadhin took 5 for 66 and 6 for 86 while the second little pal, Valentine took 4 for 48 and 3 for 79. West Indies won that four Test series by 3-1. The West Indies with the mighty ‘Ws’ – Weekes, Worrel and Walcott dominated the international cricket scene with their batting prowess. That is until the Indians with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Virat Kholi, Rohit Sharma and Pakistanis such as Inzamam-ul-Haq, Mohamed Yousuf and Saeed Anwar displaced them. A thousand apologies for not including Aussie, New Zealand, English and South African batting greats. But we are brown skinned, No?

Before the allegation of being unpatriotic points it’s querulous finger and at the risk of treading on thin ice let’s mention with great pride our very own super batsmen that mesmerized the international cricket world – Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardane, Arvinda de Silva, Sanath Jayasuriya, Arjuna Ranatunge and here’s where the thin ice may crack – Romesh Kuluwitharana (Affectionately called ‘Little Karu’ by the late Tony Greig). While the urge to carry on writing about international cricket scenarios surges within, the Muse declares ‘Come, come. Keep to the topic.’ OK, OK, so here goes.

We are a cricket crazy nation. Opinions will differ about the contribution made to our country by the English. But why raise a Haa Hoo of a controversy? There’s one thing on which we all agree – they taught us cricket. And cricket has got us tightly wrapped around in a fond embrace. Walk down the by-ways and alley – ways of Colombo and other than stray dogs who would try to nip your ankle which can be dangerous or mistake you for a lamp post and unselfconsciously raise a hind leg which can be embarrassing, there would be urchins from six to 26 playing cricket with a tennis ball and a home made wooden bat.

Cricket is also played in the villages. The bat is made from the coconut tree branch – ‘Polpithi Bat’. But just can’t keep the Windies out of this. Interestingly, West Indies cricket celebrity Brian Lara best known for his 400 not out in the Test against England in 2004 stated ‘My first bat was shaped of a coconut branch. And from that day all I wanted to do was to be a cricketer.’

And so it happens that most schoolboys wanted to be cricketers. Their heroes were the First Eleven cricket team, and their main ambition was to play for this team. It was what their dreams were made of. But like many a dream, comes a time when it get’s a trifle muddled. It happens when a school girl with long plaits intrudes into that dream. The Mind would say ‘Go on play cricket. Don’t you want to play for the First Eleven?’ The Heart would say ‘Skip cricket for a while and go and meet that girl after school.’ However after a few futile attempts, failure in that direction is conceded. So it is back to cricket. But not all can enter that hallowed pool from which selections are made for the First Eleven team. Well, not yet. But playing cricket outside that pool was for anybody so long as one could run and wave one’s arm around in a circular motion. And ‘anybody’ meant most bodies. After the final bell had been rung and the studious (rather few) with furrowed brow wended their way home the ‘many’ gathered on the grounds to play cricket on their own terms.

While the main grounds were strictly meant for the cricketing elite or athletes who kept running round in circles and sprinting around the bend, there was ample room elsewhere. In these open spaces there would be clusters of nondescripts who played cricket. Well, a sort of. A bat – a real bat. A leather ball from which the shine had long, long disappeared was all the equipment needed. The length of the pitch depended on the space available. If less than the regulation 20.12 meters and most often it was less, then fast bowling was not allowed. The sole arbitrator whether bowling was fast or medium or slow was the batsman.

There were no ‘Cricket Schools’ at that time, where eager beaver kids fully equipped from b…. guards to boots were coached to attain heights of fame in the cricketing world. Hence here was practiced with much fervor, strokes such as ‘forward defense,’ ‘cover drive,’ ‘leg glance’, (not glance at leg!) ‘late cut’ etc…. Since Murali had not as yet appeared on the scene, bowlers would practice ‘leg spin,’ ‘off spin’ and ‘googly’. Yes, yes, we seem to be rushing in where even angels fear to tread. But never mind, let’s carry on. Within the limited space to play and with no pads, a leather ball can do damage. Nothing serious. A bump on the shin or a bruised forearm was all that was left to take home and talk about. And there was much to talk about. For one thing the bumps and bruises. More important was how a clean white shirt of the morning had developed russet colored patches by evening. But as someone said ‘No gains without pains’.

Watched by eagle-eyed House Captains and through a process of elimination some of these nondescript cricketers would be selected for ‘Inter –House’ cricket. And so the elimination goes on. Until finally, a chosen few would be admitted to that holy of holies the First Eleven cricket pool. Here the pride of donning the college blazer emblazoned with the college crest and having the college cap became a near reality. An added and often prized benefit was that there would be more admiring glances from nearby school girls. It was all in the game!

But, what if the monsoon thunderously growls and hurls darts of lightning screaming ‘Come out and I will give you the works’. Ah! Not to worry. There is another type of cricket. Book Cricket. And it’s played indoors beyond the reach of the monsoon rains. If it takes two to tango it takes two to play Book Cricket.

Each person selects the test playing country of his choice and writes down the names of the team in batting order. The venue is a book. Any book. The bigger the better. But one has to make sure that the left hand pages of the book are even numbered. Generally most books adhere to this format. A coin is flipped to decide who should bat first. That decided, the bowling partner opens the book at random. What counts as runs is the last digit on the left hand side, page number. It can be anything from 2 to 0. And the runs begin to flow for each batsman, 2, 4, 6, but 8 – goes to Extras. and 0 means out. Then the next batsman ‘bats’ until the 10th batsman is out. Score is added. 1st innings over. The other side bats. And so it goes on until there is a decision. Yah! Anything for cricket. Because boys will be boys. And girls will be girls. Thank Heaven!!