Street Kids and Underarm Cricket.

Last weekend while visiting one of my friends place I came across bunch of kids playing on the street. They belonged to the slum near the road and most of them seemed to be around six to eight years of age. These kids where so talented that I had to stop and watch them in amazement. There was this kiddo who was continuously kart-wheeling on the road. His entire body had turned into a wheel with his hands and legs doing the role of the spokes of the wheel. Then there where two other kids jumping from the side wall performing somersault in air before they could perfectly land on theirs legs. All this made me wonder why India has never had a good representation at gymnastic at international level? This was same as asking why a country of more than a billion population was not able to produce a decent football team of 11 players.

As I came out of my thoughts I realized that the kids had divided themselves into two groups and were now ready to play gully cricket. These kids had found new format of underarm cricket by mixing cricket and football. The bat was replaced by leg. The batsman (or the leg-men) kicked the ball thrown at him by the bowler. These kids had learnt to have fun with the limited resources they had.

I continued my walk but only to take myself back in time to sweet old childhood memories of underarm cricket. Underarm cricket is a fun form of cricket with no written rules. That is what makes it very interesting. The rules are usually formed depending on the number of players and the area you are playing in. Only strict compulsion is that bowling should be done under the arm which is opposite to the rule of standard cricket.

There are some common rules which prevail at most places though. Like scoring a sixer is considered out. This means there is no scope for budding talents who aspire being Yuraj and Sehwag in this game. Also reinforces the fact that there are no ‘chakkas’ allowed in this format of the game. To make things worse for the batsman if he scores a six and the ball goes too far he is made to get the ball himself. One more rule which make life difficult for batsman is ‘one-tup’ catch or one bounce catch. Batsman is declared out even if the fielder catches the ball after one bounce.

But it is not that most of the rules of underarm cricket are against the batsman. There are rules which support the batting side as well. Firstly the boundaries are very close, so scoring four runs is easy. If there are places in gully which are difficult to reach or say there are thorny bushes near the play area, those places are marked restricted. Which mean if the ball goes in those places, declared one run or two runs is given directly without batsman having to actually run. Also usually there is no batsman at non-striker end, if a batsman scores one run or three runs he has to walk back to the striker end to face the next ball. Incase there are less players, wicket keeper’s role is usually avoided from the game. In this case no runs are allowed if ball is hit behind the wicket.

Infrastructure required for this format of the game is cheap and easily available. Ball used is a rubber or tennis ball. So this small change gets rid of pads, helmet and center pad as well. Bats vary from proper wooden ones, ‘piddo’ (midriff of coconut leaf) or a bat created at home from piece of wood. Scooter or car tyre or a wall with three lines drawn on it makes the wicket at the striker end and a large stone or brick forms wicket at the bowling end. Since the stone is quite low in height many times concept of ‘current’ is used to get the batsman run out. According to this rule if the fielder touches his leg to the stone and catches the ball in his hands then it is considered as good as ball touching the stone.

Single innings of underarm cricket varies from five to ten overs. This extra short format of the game brings in few interesting strategies and feelings as well. Most kids want to be a batsman, so if the batsman on the crease is not getting out you’ll find your own team mates hoping you get out soon and they get to bat. Bowling side also plays clever, if they find that a batsman is not able to hit they’ll try not to get him out and waste overs with him. You’ll see catches being dropped on purpose. Setting the fielding is usually not a problem because of the small size of the playing area.

This underarm cricket is real fun to play. After writing all this I miss my childhood even more. Is anybody game to play it?

Short Lived Excitement – Schumacher Cancels F1 Comeback.

Seven time world champion has cancelled his Formula 1 comeback due to lack of fitness. Comeback news of 40 year old Michael Schumacher as replacement for injured Felipe Massa had created lot of excitement. But to disappointment of Schumacher and Ferrari fans the champion has decided not to participate on the 23rd August European GP.

Article on official Michael Schumacher website www.michaelschumacher.de read ‘Consequences of bike-injuries make return impossible’. He wrote to his fans through this official website informing about this news. He said “Yesterday evening, I had to inform Ferrari President Luca di Montezemolo and Team Principal Stefano Domenicali that unfortunately I’m not able to step in for Felipe. I really tried everything to make that temporary comeback possible, however, much to my regret it didn’t work out. Unfortunately we did not manage to get a grip on the pain in the neck which occurred after the private F1-day in Mugello, even if medically or therapeutically we tried everything possible.”

We will be missing what could have been an awesome second half of this year’s Formula one season. It would have been great fun to watch Schumi compete with young drivers like Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton. Even though this is bad news, we wish Michael Schumacher good health. Ferrari has now named test driver Luca Badoer as their replacement for Schumacher.

The Champion Is Back!

The Formula One 2009 season couldn’t have got more interesting. The champion is all set to make his come back to the sport. Michael Schumacher has agreed to be the replacement driver for Ferrari. After it was clear that Felipe Massa would take some time to recover from his injuries after a terrible accident during qualifier at Hungary, Ferrari bosses on discussion with Schumacher decided that he will be the temporary cover for Massa.

The return of Schumacher on track has created lot of excitement among the fans. It will be awesome to watch the champ compete again. Suddenly second half of this year’s Formula One season has become more fun then ever.

There are a few hurdles Ferrari and Schumacher have to cross though. This year’s regulations forbid any testing during the season apart from strictly controlled straight-line runs to check out aerodynamic development. But it is believed that Ferrari will request on safety grounds that the seven-time world champion should be allowed to become acquainted with his new machine before the first practice session on an unfamiliar Valencia circuit.

Schumacher has spent the past couple of days testing at the Ferrari-owned Mugello circuit near Florence, driving one of the Ferraris in which Kimi Raikkonen won the 2007 world championship, the year after he retired. Driving an old Formula One car does not breach the testing ban, which only applies to the current cars being used by the teams contesting the world championship.

This decision of Schumacher’s comeback will prove as a blessing in disguise for the sport which is currently going through tough times. This should get the fans back which have got disappointed by politics between FIA and the teams over next years regulations and speculations of a break away series.

I am eagerly waiting for European GP at Valencia on 23rd August, 2009. As we pray for a fast recovery for Felipe, here’s wishing for return of good times on the track for Ferrari with Schumacher is driver sit.

Roger Federer Creates History.

History was created today at Wimbledon men’s final. Roger Federer crossed Pete Sampras’s record with his 15th grand slam win in an epic match. Roger defeated Andy Roddick 5-7, 7-6, 7-6, 6-3, 16-14. Andy played magnificently to hold Roger back from breaking the record but Roger was destined to win today. The match went for over four hours.

I felt Andy was the better player on the court today. Roger was not able to break his server until the last point. He won the second and third set on tie-breaker. Andy played confidently through out the match controlling the game. It was a bit unfortunate for him to lose the second set tie break after leading 6-2 in it.

It couldn’t have been tougher at the final for Roger who had a pretty easy tournament at Wimbledon this year. Of course he was playing for the record and had lot of pressure and was not playing his best game. But then he held his nerves till the end and came out victorious. He now has all the statistics on his side to prove that he is the greatest tennis player in the world ever. Recently he won French Open, a title he had long been waiting for to complete his career grand slam. He is only the sixth person in the history to have achieved this record. After this win he now also reclaims his number 1 position in ATP tennis men’s ranking. He still has lot more years of tennis to come and definitely can reach new highs.

It was also great to see Pete Sampras come back to the All England Club to watch Roger break his record of highest number grand slam wins. Pete has won at Wimbledon a record seven times (1993-95 and 1997-2000).

It was an awesome day of tennis. Great match bravely fought by both the players. I now look forward towards 2009 US Open, hoping to see Rafael Nadal back in action. He was definitely missed at Wimbledon this year.

Ferrari One Two at French GP.

It was a great day for Ferrari as their drivers finish first and second at French GP. Kimi was unlucky to loose the lead and lucky at the same time to finish the race with broken exhaust.

Trulli finish third after a wheel to wheel racing with Hekki in last few laps of the race. It gave Toyota their first podium finish since 2005.

BMW was disappointing after a one two finish in Canadian GP. Kubica finished fifth while Nick struggled as he finished thirteenth.

Hamilton was unlucky after suffering from initial ten places down on the grid at start because of his mistake at Montréal; he was again penalised drive through penalty on charge of overtaking the drive of the race track. He finished tenth. Hekki scored some points for McLaren by finishing fourth.

Ferrari extends good lead in the constructor’s ranking. Driver’s championship has become really interesting with new driver taking the lead. Massa is the fourth driver to lead the driver’s championship this season. With tight fight for the driver’s title we can expect an interesting season ahead.

Stats:

French GP 2008:
1st Felipe Massa, 2nd Kimi Raikkonen, 3rd Jarno Trulli.

Driver Standing as on 22nd June, 2008:
1st Felipe Massa 48pts, 2nd Robert Kubica 46pts, 3rd Kimi Raikkonen 43pts.

Constructor Standing as on 22nd June, 2008:
1st Ferrari 91pts, 2nd BMW Sauber 74pts, 3rd McLaren Mercedes 58pts.