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ricket is like life. When ground all around the second you bat, you are alone. most populated country of the In front of you are your world. "It is not that it is enemies waiting for considered a religion, any mistakes you "Cricket is cricket is religion. It might make. Behind even has its Gods", you are your friends, religion and it claims Sajith, who expecting good results. draws strength to put You only have one has its Gods" his kit on everyday to opportunity to get it coach after a day’s right and there are ten ways to be work. "None of us earns a single eliminated. You have to analyse rupee by doing this. It is only the situation and solve the love for cricket", he says while problem by yourself. Like in pointing at his partner coaches. everyday life", is Sajith's analogy, The three of them are evaluating whose passion for this sport and selecting the players they inspires his little players in the will soon train, who will form the cricket ground. official under-fourteen team of the district of Ernakulam, Cochin. Cricket is the most important Chosen children will compete sport in India. The game which against thirteen local teams for everyone wants to play; from the the title of Kerala champions to school playground and alleys of be able to play at national level the poorest neighbourhoods to the against the rest of the country’s most spectacular stadiums. When states. the season starts, whole families come together to celebrate the Sajith works as a police officer at matches. Players of all ages and Fort Kochi, a very touristic place their trainers don't miss a thing on well known for centuries of their television screens to learn trading spices worldwide. He and support their stars and remembers going out with his encourage them to win. Cricket childhood friends to manufacture with friends is played on bats and balls for the evening weekday evenings and from the matches. "Those days, we used to crack of dawn on Sundays at cut a bat shaped piece off a palm every official or improvised tree and make the balls with 04
newspaper. A professional ball cost about three hundred rupees and it was unaffordable for our parents. Nowadays the kids have everything", he claims with a mix of nostalgia and uneasiness whilst at the same time remembering that time with tenderness. When he was eleven he was signed by the Muthoot ECC (Ernakulam CrĂquet Club) and this year, at thirty four, he starts coaching along with his team colleague Greethish and the veteran Ravi, who is experienced in training cricket teams of all different ages. 05
Children’s expressions show their nerves and seriousness of being assessed in this round of selection. Some of them are batting, and while others bowl, the ones who are waiting keep practising the movements with imaginary balls and bats one time after another. In the queue to bowl, there is no disorder, laughter or any other factor distracting them, even if this might be normal for children of their age. They simply concentrate and wait in silence for their turn. They do a run up to get momentum and when they
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"Always play as ifyou were representing your country"
reach the line, they jump to help the ball go faster. Sajith looks at them and writes down each grade on the marks form. During the selection process, the coach advises the children to keep this level of discipline up in every activity they do. "Whatever you do in your life, do it with discipline", he firmly states. As a good official, Sajith is strict but caring and encouraging, "It does not matter where you are now, it matters where your targets are. Only aiming for the sky, can you reach the top of the hill. Always play as if you were representing India. That is where you must set your goal", says Sajith cheering on the children who pay full attention with concentrated brows and jaws clenched, as if to be thinking "Yes, Sir! I'll be the best". Sajith saves some time after the training sessions to talk to the children’s parents who invariably ask: "what do you think of my boy?" A ball, a bat and two wickets (three vertical sticks and two small wooden pieces above them) are needed to play cricket. The 09
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wickets are located at either end of a rectangular pitch . The two batsmen (one at each end) run from one wicket to the other and each time they reach it, they score a run. There are eleven players in the defense team spread out over the grounds who must avoid the batsman scoring runs. However, ball and bat are equipment enough for many players. Normally, due to economic or space issues, they improvise their own wicket and usually they have only one.
rules, who forbade him to play to ensure he was dedicating his time to study, he remembers that some bamboo handmade sticks were enough to play a hidden match
"My first bat was almost as big as me"
after school. Even now at twenty eight, he dedicates a big part of his evening to playing cricket with his neighbourhood friends. The Palace Cricket Club TPRA is Govind is a lawyer. He works never short of players in the from nine in the morning to four evening. With more than sixty o'clock in the afternoon and just years of history, the Tripunithura an hour later he is ready, waiting cricket ground belonged to the for the rest at the ground which royal family of Cochin. Six has received him each evening decades have passed and have since he learnt the rules and left the ground reduced to a small positions of the national sport. "I piece of land. Where the grass was only three years old the first has spread fed by abundant rains. time I held a bat. It was almost as Two centenary trees watch over big as me", he remembers and the place which is surrounded by laughs. modern buildings and roads. "Nowadays it is so small that the Some play barefoot, which does eleven players of a match don't not seem to be considered even fit and we have to play with dangerous in this country full of only eight or nine", says Govind, temples and carpets, despite who remembers the Palace having to avoid broken glasses. Ground’s better times. Govind Sometimes, when the ball is was born and grew up in this area struck hard enough, it may land of the city. Inspite of his parent’s in one abandoned auto-rickshaw 12
which ended its days at the bottom of this emblematic field. Sometimes one of the neighbours stops at the entrance with half-closed eyes and a shy smile, as if thinking:
not show disenchantment or enthusiasm for the match. It must not have been born in India. "In this country, people pray to their gods for their team to win. I remember I was on leave for two days from the office when the India vs "Ifa match is England final was broadcast. important the whole If a match is important the whole country comes to a country comes halt", claims Govind with a loud guffaw, clap included. to a halt" The lawyer ensures there is "look at these guys, it seems more devotion in the north, so like yesterday when I was the the greatest players come one running after the ball". mostly from the northern Just in front of the ground cities or villages. lives an elephant which does
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In Mumbai, like in the rest of this huge country, the kids find their ways to improvise a ground where they can plant their three sticks (stumps) and score their runs. Juhu Beach is one of the many beaches on the coast of the city where its inhabitants walk and enjoy magnificent sunsets. As cricket can be dangerous for the crowds on the beach, it is banned to play on the shore. That is why, when the guards appear, Ramavtar and his friends hide their bats and balls and, kick their stumps over to make them look like some harmless pieces of wood on the sands. As soon as the officials turn their backs and start to walk away, the game resumes. Every player in a cricket team has to take a turn in batting. Thus they have to develop their skills with the bat and then choose between bowling or fielding. Ramavtar is a bowler, so every evening, at Juhu Beach, this twenty three year old, runs, jumps and bowls the ball as if he were in front of a crowded stadium where flashes, shouts and applauses would encourage him to be at his best.
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He says he started playing with a neighbourhood friend in 1999. Any excuse was good enough to go out and play in the street for a while. Much water has passed under the bridge since then and now that he is finishing his masters of science in IT, he regrets not having as much free time as he would like to practise. However, he knows how important his studies are for his future, as he expects to become a 19
researcher and can play cricket in his free time and remember his favourite stars M.S. Dhoni and the currently veteran Sir Donald Bradman. The city offers uncountable and varied scenarios where the children meet and play. Some of them play in narrow streets among skyscrapers, others in small spaces, garages and even on rural landscapes, like the case of
Worli Koliwada neighbourhood, which is located in Mahim Bay, Mumbai. Every evening, it’s colourful streets see hundreds of children leaving their houses with kites, footballs and cricket bats. The village perimeter ends with a peninsular overlooking the ocean where there is a 5.6 km long bridge across the bay, called Rajiv Gandhi Sea Link. There is an abandoned fort near the end of this peninsular which is called The Worli Fort. It was restored in 2009 and nowadays it is guarded by hundreds of crows that bring an apocalyptic nuance to the landscape of shacks and temples battered by time and weather. In
The women's national team has won four Asia Cups the background, minatory skyscrapers prove a stark contrast to the urban centre and look over the coastal village wondering how they have not invaded it yet. Around the fort, there is a space of uninhabited land, which seems unthinkable given the population density of the city but it is ideal for anyone who seeks relaxing view and also to the local fishermen's children who spend
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their free time there. Omkar is one of them. In his twelve years he admits being attracted to almost every sport, but cricket is his favorite. He has been practising it for four years, from the first moment his parents allowed him to go to the fort to play. In Koliwada, girls prefer to sing and dance, since in their upbringing, this sport is for boys. However, India also plays female cricket championships in which there are great players. The women's national team has won four Asia Cups and has reached the World's final. Since the eighteenth century, English sailors arrived in Europe talking of cricket in India. Today, the country has become a world leader in cricket thanks to more than two hundred years of effort and passion for the sport and millions of players who start their training from childhood in alleys and grounds of any town or city. Millions of stories of young and not so young people who dreamt to see their names shining on the biggest world stages.
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