We started with Delhi, moved to Karnataka, and now head to West Bengal for our next edition of the street cricket chronicles.
Through this series we hope to bring out the cricket culture in different cities at the most amateur levels: whether it is on the streets, in the gullies and driveways and terraces, on beaches, or in the parks.
In this episode we chat with two guests who grew up in Kolkata and Asansol in the 1980s and 1990s.
Talking points:
Rubber, Deuce, Rubber-Deuce and Cambis balls
Influence of the long monsoon and early sunset on the street cricket dynamics
Seasonal switch between cricket and football
Genteel Kolkata and the not-so-genteel Asansol
Parents as match referees
Why Harbhajan Singh would have struggled in street cricket in West Bengal
Pocket money? What is that alien concept?
The contentious wide calls and the self-regulating rule
Bricks as stumps and real-time Hawkeye problems
Cricket as an individual sport and the near-universal chronology of batting and bowling line-ups
The popularity of Abdul Qadir in the ’80s in Kolkata and how his bowling action was the most imitated in the streets
Mimicking Azhar’s fielding, Srikanth’s mannerisms, Hudson’s batting stance
Participants:
Abhishek Mukherjee (@ovshake42)
Shom Biswas
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
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Lead image from here
Related:
Abhishek Mukherjee’s writings at Cricketcountry, Firstpost, Sportstar
Abhishek Mukherjee on Azharuddin’s 182 against England at Eden Gardens in 1993
Abhijit Gupta on the glossary of gully cricket in Kolkata
Just another Bengali playing cricket on the streets
Street Cricket Chronicles from Delhi – 81allout archive
Street Cricket Chronicles from Karnataka – 81allout archive
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