One Tip One Hand.

Somehow, I have found back my long lost love for cricket and its rich illustrious history. Just a few days back, after a hectic day’s work,I  was rather bored. I googled ‘best cricketing sledging  incidents’ and  stumbled upon some rather amusing real life incidents  involving some of the very best players in the game-Fred Truman, W.G. Grace, Mervin Hughes, Sir Viv Richards, Steve Waugh and the likewise.  I was going through the Trevor Chappell under-arm incident) when it dawned upon me that under arm cricket has occupied a lion’s share in my cricketing career and it certainly had its moments. 

This particular format of the game has a charm of its own. It has a distinct earthiness (both literally and figuratively, as will be explained later!) and uniqueness around it which makes it very challenging even for seasoned veterans. For starters, the rules of the game are mostly self- made! Thus, the pedigree to which they vary depends on the guile of the players you are playing with, mostly. Add to that bits and pieces of ingenuity ( three misses and you’re out, no running between the wickets,  etc.) and you have an exhilarating game in anyone’s back/front  yard that you won’t feel like leaving unless its way past bath time and you hear that dreaded  ‘Dara, baba ashuk bolbo’ from your mom!

 Basically, it is short cricket with under arm bowling without any restrictions as regards the over limit. The thing that is to be noted is that the size of the boundary has to be really small. As with any short cricket game, the boundaries on all sides are traced out by the players’ sandals (shoe is considered too luxurious for this format of the game) or pieces of bricks or even in some cases, red lines chalked out by the bricks. The last option can be quite deceitful at times!

The best part about this game is that one rule that has made this game so beautiful- One tip, one hand. Basically it means that at any given point of a time a batsman can be given out and booed/sighed (depending on how important he is to the team) if the ball that he just hit takes one bounce of the ground and then, is in any of the fielder’s grasp before the ball crosses the boundary line. The point is, however, that the grasp should be a single handed one, without the support of any part of the body. And only one touch is allowed. Sounds simple?

 Apparently it seems simple enough but then owing to the lack of umpires, hotspot, DRS and what not,   most of the catches taken in this manner create quite a hue and fuss regarding the cleanliness/fairness of the catch and play is halted. As in almost everywhere in our country, the biggest problems are solved by our right to vote, it’s the same thing here that decides the batsman’s fate. Another aspect of this game is that the boundaries are hard to come by. I had faced some of the bowlers in my time that could spin the ball either way using the same grip. The clay surface did not help one bit and as a result of a combination of all these entities, it is very challenging to score.  Mostly the batsmen were prey to defensive shots as the fielders jumped hither and dither to grasp the ball with added enthusiasm.

 I have a penchant for this kind of cricket because as a batsman, it brought the best out of you. It taught you subtle techniques, like placement, wrist work, and the most important of them all- self-control.  The batsman is constantly encircled by fielders with the usual mutterings and sledging and it makes it all the more difficult to concentrate. Footwork is primary and so is temperament since the matches usually don’t have any over restrictions. As for the bowlers, they always have an upper hand in these types of games. One should know how to make a legit under arm delivery and the fielders will do the rest. Spin or no spin. No matter how bad the bowler is, all he needs to know is how to pitch in a full toss after four dot balls! That does the trick in most cases because it tempts the batsman to free his arms and in the manner, lose his wicket.   I would say, the game is a pretty balanced one and unlike the other formats, it’s the bowlers who have an upper hand on any kind of pitches which is again a rare thing in India.

These days however, the para cricket scene seems to have been revamped and I see kids/biggies playing short cricket with much vigour but haven’t seen under arm cricket in a while. I haven’t an idea if it is as popular elsewhere as it was in my native para. The thing is that once you start enjoying this particular format, you will be playing it for days, as it happened in our case. I miss those days and I am proud to have had a fair share of this beautiful game that not many will probably have experienced in their entire lifetime.