How was that?

Let us face it, cricket is not just a sport for us, it is more like a religion. Whether you are a fourteen year old teenager who thinks he is a pro bowler or a fifty year old uncle playing with a bad knee, everyone forgets their age the moment the game starts. We fight over it, relive our childhood, and completely forget about our aching backs. It is the one place where teenagers and seniors play together, united by the single goal of beating the other team at all costs.

Nobody has the final word

Every neighbourhood match runs on its own special set of crazy rules. In professional cricket, hitting the ball over the wall gets you six runs. In our game, hitting the ball outside the park means you are out, and you have to go get the ball back yourself. If you hit a parked car or break a window, you are out, you pay for the damage, and you do not get to bat for a week. We also have strange rules like try ball for the first delivery or single wicket matches when we are short on players, which make zero sense to anyone else.

Then comes the biggest lie in cricket, that the umpire has the final call. We calmly tell everyone to respect the umpire, but that is far from reality. If an uncle who cannot see properly gives you out, or if a teenager gets called out on a ball that barely touched his leg, all respect goes out the window. The pitch instantly turns into a loud court room where everyone is screaming, gesturing, and demanding a replay that does not exist.

Victory is remembered for at most two decades; an act of good sportsmanship is remembered for a lifetime.

The whole match is kept alive by constant shouting and friendly insults. A loud shout of How was that is not a question, it is a war cry. You will hear a teenager yell, Get your eyes checked dude, the ball snicked the bat, while an older player gets teased with, You are getting too old to run after the ball, just let it go to the boundary. This back and forth is a daily affair, and even though we fight every single day, we always show up again the next evening ready for more.