We seem to be on a roll with cricket related posts (here and here and here). So, here is one with more pleasant associations.
See if you can count how many cricket matches are simultaneously going on at GTC Ground Hyderabad on the New Year’s Day – 2010 (please click on the photo below to get a larger and better viewable image).
I was able to count 15. Any challengers?
Personal Experience:
I have a personal experience of playing cricket like this. We were playing a match in APWA college ground. Several matches were going on simultaneously with boundaries and fielders of every match overlapping with many others. I was fielding on the boundary line and our match was going quite boring so I started looking a another match whose pitch and action were much closer to where I was fielding.
After a while I felt a ball hitting my foot and distant shouting of people saying: “Owais – Owaaaaaais – Oye -oye -Owaaaaais.”
As soon as I came back to senses I realized that a batsman in my own match had hit a bowl which by all luck had come and hit my foot. My co-fielders were now shouting at me to give attention to our own match. So in a hypnotized motion I picked up the ball and threw it at the wicket keeper. The batsmen in the mean time thought I was too lost watching other matches so they started running an extra run. By some luck, the timing of my throw got so timed that it actually ran out one of the batsmen. People were laughing holding their stomachs but I was able to keep my face. It also proved the famous proverb of Cricket that ‘Never run a extra run from mis-fielding’
Photo Credits: Farhan Khan at APP.
I am counting the ones where there is actually a batsman and I think I see 12.
Nice post. Yes, reminds me of my childhood days. I was able to count 15 too based on number of wickets and the direction of the players. I see a bunch of people gathered in a cricket like environment which may make it 16th game but they don’t seem to be playing cricket so I will stick to 15 :)
By the way, the caption says that youngsters are playing different games but I don’t see anybody playing anything but cricket. Can you locate someone playing a different game?
Owais Bhai, good reminder of helping each other by throwing balls back. Well, one such incident happened to me. I was gladly helping someone by throwing their ball back to them when a ball came and hit me. So, I failed to realize that our own bowler was about to ball before I decided to help. On top of that, it would have been a sitter but I did not even try to catch the ball :) Well, I got yelled at by the bowler and the captain. Thank god we won otherwise I would have been beat up by all 10 players of the team…well 9 because I don’t expect my brother to beat me up…but who knows ;)
An even more interesting situation happens when a cricket and a soccer OR a cricket and a hockey game occur in the same ground. I’ve had experience of such venues also :) Great thing is that all these people play their respective games in a cordial way. Disputes within a match are common but I’ve rarely seen people fighting with other games in the vicinity. They usually share space and help eachother by throwing balls that may have gone too far. A shout like ‘bhai zara hamari ball phenk dena’ is usually enough to get cooperation from nearby fielders of another game :)
Imran I believe you on 40+ matches going on in a large ground (although not shown in this photo). Many readers will remember the time when Karachi’s southern boundaries used to end at Mauripur village near PAF Masroor. From there upto Hawkes Bay, a good 10 km long stretch was a sparse ‘desert like’ land where on any given Friday, one could easily find 30+ cricket matches going on simultaneously.
Same was the case in New Karachi – last stop of omni bus W11. That used to be the end of northern city limits and on weekends 10-15 cricket matches used to take place on empty desert land simultaneously. This place used to be extra challenging. Dust storms were common due to wilderness and it was impossible to ball against-the-wind even for Herculean bowlers. All bowling ends were made into-the-breeze and yes there was no water there either. Water had to be brought by teams from homes.
‘hawaa ke margholay :) ‘ (ciruclating winds) used to throw tonnes of dust on all who played here but ‘jazba’ of playing cricket was above all hardships :)
The photo of this post reminded me of days which I could relate to and thus I chose to share it here. And ofcourse there is a perpetual challenge of counting how many matches are actually going on here
I am from Hyderabad and i had played several time in this ground about 5mins ride on bike from my colony. Back in 80’s on Fridays we use to go very early in the ground to see a good spot for as “Pitch” … i had never counted how many matches were going on at the same time. I think no one can count. I wild guess mayb 40 to 60 matches.