Street cricket chronicles: Deuce ball, Half out, and the great Olympian spirit of West Bengal
07/14/20 • 60 min
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)
*
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
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)
*
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
Previous Episode
From Mushtaq to Misbah: a journey like none other
Our special guest this week is Nadeem F Paracha, an historian, author, and cultural critic who writes a regular column for the Dawn newspaper.
NFP, as he is fondly known, has been a keen observer of Pakistan cricket for close to half a century. Drawing on his vast knowledge of history and culture, he brings a unique perspective when writing about the game. And he adds vital context with regard to the political and social conditions that have prevailed across the years.
Talking Points:
- Wasim Raja - a man ahead of his time
- Pakistan's historic win in Sydney in 1977
- Mushtaq Mohammad - a largely forgotten captain
- Zia-ul-Haq's love for television
- Javed Miandad's immortal six in Sharjah
- The 1987 World Cup - and Imran's retirement
- The ugly 1990s and the match-fixing scourge
- Inzamam and the Zia school of captaincy
- Misbah's ideology-free pragmatism
Participants:
Nadeem F Paracha (@nadeemfparacha); Siddhartha Vaidyanathan (@sidvee); Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
Like Nation, Like Cricket: How Cricket Has Mirrored The Political Evolution of Pakistan - nayadaur.tv - Nadeem F Paracha; Pakistan cricket: A class, ethnic and sectarian history ; The biggest unfulfilled talent - Nadeem F Paracha on Wasim Raja; West Indies v Pakistan, Fifth Test, Kingston, 1977 - YouTube upload; Misbah's story: How the almost forgotten cricketer rose to become an icon; Cricket columns by Nadeem F Paracha in Dawn; The multi-faceted domestic giant - Gul Hameed Bhatti obituary - - Osman Samiuddin; With Allah on their side - Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2006 - Osman Samiuddin
Books discussed:
The Pakistan Anti-Hero: History of Pakistan Nationalism Through the Lives of Iconoclasts; End of past: An immediate eyewitness history of a troubled nation; Unquiet Ones; Cutting Edge; Imran: Autobiography of Imran Khan; Inside Out; Art of Captaincy
Next Episode
When a tie was a victory for Border's battlers
In this special episode of the 81allout podcast, we chat with Michael Sexton on his latest book Border's Battlers, which provides a fascinating account of the iconic tied Test between India and Australia at Chepauk in September 1986. Michael has been a journalist, producer, and sportswriter for over three decades and been a part of ABC, BBC, and Channel Nine. He has written eight books and two of them on cricket - Chappell's Last Stand and Border's Battlers.
Talking points:
Contextualizing the state of Australian cricket and Border's captaincy coming into the Test series against India
Vaudeville reenactment of the last over of the tied Test by Greg Matthews
Dean Jones's magnificent double-century followed by an ambulance ride to the hospital
Getting the geographical specificity of Chennai and Chepauk right
Heroic efforts of Ray Bright and forever-on-the-field 13th man, Mike Veletta
Influence of Bob Simpson and the elephantine memory of Errol Alcott
Kapil Dev's brilliant counterattacking century
Murmurs of a headbutt and the rancorous spirit through the dramatic stages of the match
The camaraderie and consistency of Dara Dotiwala and Vikram Raju
Shivlal Yadav's six; a rational and calculative Ravi Shastri under immense pressure
Parallels and the differences to the tied Test in Brisbane in 1960
Participants:
Michael Sexton (@Michael_Sexton5)
Siddharatha Vaidyanathan (@Sidvee)
Mahesh Sethuraman (@cornerd)
Related:
Scorecards of the tied Tests - Brisbane '60 and Chennai '86
Madras Magic - a documentary on the Chennai tied Test
Highlights of the Brisbane tied Test
Martin Smith on how the tied Test ended the career of Vikram Raju
Arunabha Sengupta on the dramatic last day of the Test
Dean Jones and the second tied Test at the Bradman Museum
Books recommendations from Michael Sexton:
Edging Towards Darkness - John Lazenby
Harold Larwood: the Ashes bowler who wiped out Australia - Duncan Hamilton
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