Every day during the last sixteen summers, our streets were the playground for some fantastic games of cricket. Each day at noon, when elders took their rest inside their homes, players and avid spectators rushed to the very dead end of our street all geared up to start a game of cricket. The perfect spot was the dead end, because that is where the players placed the wickets, as this game did not have a wicket keeper or a slip or a fine leg or not even a third man.
This form of street cricket has only one rule and that is to strike the ball with the bat as hard as possible and the rule for the bowlers is to deliver the ball as fast as possible. However, other rules and a few tricks are instilled in the blood of these street legends. You will never witness even a single ball that is pitched up to the batsman and you can never ever see any straight or elegant drives. This form of cricket is played all through the year till the players get the news about the annual Summer Gala. The best players are selected at this time and are sent to play in a ground. That’s right...a real cricket ground!
The 2009 annual Summer Gala was absolute fun. The number of teams that competed in this gala equaled the number of streets and that totaled to about 110 teams! Just imagine the sheer number of players and the amount of organization that is needed to put together such a mammoth function every year. 10 matches were set to be played each day and each match was to be played with only 8 overs. To my infinite delight, the team that participated from my street entered the finals after continuous matches that were played for 20 days. These enthusiastic players, who were exhausted after competing in so many matches, were not given any rest even before their final match. The average score that is usually achieved in these matches is approximately 100 to 130 runs.
The final match is obviously the mega event of the whole Summer Gala. Usually some MPA is invited to preside over the match and to distribute the prize to the final winner of the annual Summer Gala. Even the usually boring prize distribution is a total fun event here. The final prizes are predetermined and fixed. The fun starts when the game starts to go one way. The instance when the game starts to dip on one side, someone will declare a significant prize for a player in the opposite team. This declaration of prize will act as a catalyst to add more spirit in the already tense match. Most often, winners gain huge amounts of prize money and those who sponsored the prizes unofficially will also get immense publicity.
On the whole, an annual Summer Gala is a time to have fun and this year it was even more enjoyable. A lot of players won significant amounts of prize money and the others had the time of their lives.