August 24th 2008
Day 11, Sunday

Cricket!

Quite suddenly one day I was invited to a cricket match for the 3rd game in an India vs Sri Lanka test match, of course being ignorant of all things cricket I just went along out of curiosity. Without much of a clue as to what the day would entail I just packed my camera and my outing hat for a day at the greens (that probably isn’t even the proper term, but just roll with it).
Was picked up by Sanjeev (the cousin who invited me to the game) around noon and we picked up a few more people on our way to the stadium. I learnt that the stadium security allows only non-alcoholic drinks, so our ingenious crew took a sealed water bottle removed the water via a small hole in the bottom and injected white coconut arrack (40%-50% sharp tasting alcohol), along with a bottle of cola to mix all was well.
As we approached the stadium I could see greater crowds of people traveling along the roadside and the traffic became quite congested. Fortunately the seats we were able to get came with a special parking pass that got us right beside the stadium – otherwise a bit of a trek with long line ups to get into the grounds. The pricing for seating were as follows; standing area for Rs. 100/ ($1 CAD), lower level seating for Rs. 1500/ and upper level seating for Rs. 2500, there is also special boxes for the relatives of the players and other officials. Again we were quite fortunate to get the upper level seating with a good view of the field, after getting seated the game had yet to start so I took the opportunity to learn at least something of cricket which Sanjeev was able to impart.

It’s similar to baseball but there are only 2 innings, the first to bat is decided by coin toss. Here is where it gets a bit complicated, there is a bowler and he throws 6 balls in one over, after an over the batsmen switch side – oh, I forgot to mention there are always 2 batsmen on the field. Instead of a diamond the field is a large oval, with an inner border, the pitching field is in the middle consisting of a rectangular track with a set a wicket at each end. The wickets are 3 poles stuck in the ground that have 2 small wooden pieces resting at the top. The goal of the bowler is to hit the wicket and knock the piece over to get the batsmen out, per inning each team has 10 wickets – or 10 outs after which the teams switch positions. As well wickets can be taken from catching the ball before it falls to the ground or penalties such as the ‘right foot rule’(if the batsmen is standing in front of the wicket so that it is covered).
There are a bunch of other rules but I have no desire to go into them here, nor do I actually remember that many more so let’s continue with the story…

As the game was about to start more and more people started pouring into the stadium, the crowd was fairly mixed though in the upper level more of the well to do and ‘cool’ people were in the crowd. I was surprised to see a five person band seat themselves not too far away, a fairly common thing they are called ‘papara’ bands denoting the type of beat they usually adhere to. It seems the band is part of the attraction of seeing the game live, I must say that they were quite good at keeping things lively.
The game started with a coin toss which India one – they elected to bat first. As the people took their positions on the field the cheering became intense and people began using these inflatable plastic noise makers that were handed out at the entrance of the stadium, even the band got louder and played a faster beat for the crowd. The cheering reached a crescendo when the first Sri Lankan bowler threw the first ball resulting in a scratch (no run or out). Afterward everyone settled down a bit then divided their attention between the game and listening to the band.
By far the center of attention were the bands, people around them were dancing and cheering along with them, as honestly to keep attention on the match itself would be kind of boring. Every once in a while an exciting play took place and everyone got up to cheer, but only the really hardcore cricket fans could really stay focused on the game all the time.
Scoring for the game was fairly straight forward, if a batsmen hit the ball far enough away he and the other batsmen would run the length of the centre pitch, being awarded 1 run for each length they ran. If they hit the ball so that it rolled along the ground over the outside boundary 4 runs were awarded. Then if they hit the ball in the air over the boundary then that was 6 runs (the most that could be awarded).
The rest of the game was a mixture of various types of runs awarded to India and a few plays that resulted in wickets. The game had a maximum of 50 overs per inning which translates into 300 pitches (and chances to score), though again if a team got 10 wickets it was over.

I’ll take a little break here to mention ‘Percy’ the one man cheering squad. It seems that for ages there was only one patriotic elderly fellow (I so wanted to use old geezer) who would be the only one cheering for Sri Lanka at international and all local events. He was so dedicated showing up for every single game in uniform and waving a Sri Lankan flag that he was officially recognized by the team and sponsors. A self made celebrity, who just loved the cricket team… or had way too much time on his hands, either way quite an interesting story. So carrying on where I left off…


After the first 50 overs (and roughly 3 ½ hours) India had 237 runs, not exactly a high score but average. This began the ‘half-time’ so we took the opportunity to get some beer and short eats, such as chicken hot dogs and nuggets. The crowd was quite large around the 4 concession tents with the beer line by far the longest. The whole thing seemed an exercise in chaos familiar to anyone who has attended a major sporting event anywhere in the world.
Sri Lanka came up to bat and the crowd became rowdier than before, as many started producing smuggled bottles of Arrack and other alcohol to consume for the second half. We also broke open our ‘bottled water’ and had a few drinks as Sri Lanka started their batting, they had to score 238 runs to win the match. Again it was a bit of a boring affair watching the game in length but dividing ones time with the festivities of the papara band and the occasional cheering moments on the field made the time go by quickly. Unfortunately Sri Lanka was penalized several times early on for about 5 extra wickets, so after only 20 overs they had only 2 wickets left and about 50 runs. It didn’t look like Sri Lanka was in any form to win against India.
Though as the game continued one could not help but get caught up in the excitement as the Sri Lankan team tried to rally for more runs, it then became an exercise in math as we would calculate how many pitches were left and the number of runs needed per pitch, and average number of runs they needed per over. For a while it was very close but India played well and wickets Sri Lanka received early on proved their downfall as the game ended at 48 overs after a pop fly was caught by the Indian fielders.
The final score was India 237 – Sri Lanka 204, actually quite a dismal showing by the Lankan team according to the spectators. The stadium emptied out pretty quickly (a few people left early on after when Sri Lanka had 8 wickets at the 20th over).

With that we waited a bit for the crowds to lessen and headed home, a few drunken revelers were outside but otherwise fairly tame. I can’t say that cricket is my new favorite sport, or that I really appreciate the game – I like the atmosphere of watching with other people, and the excitement created by the bands and revelers. A few people may have taken it a bit far in my opinion, dancing like possessed spider monkeys in seizure. Though what I also liked was that everyone regardless of age, gender, religion, background etc. was there to have a good time and cheer on the national team. In a country that has been given an image of a society divided by civil war, seeing a show of unity is quite uplifting – even if rather inebriated.