Cricket is undoubtedly our “real” national sport, but not everyone can manage the facilities or resources required to play the game – the hard red ball, the pads, protective gear, and full-size playgrounds. That’s why it may well be true that the real spirit of India lies in tennis-ball cricket.
This is readily apparent from the daily sights in every part of the country. A young Rajasthani pace-bowler is sprinting barefooted on burning sand to hurl histhunderbolts.
A callow Mumbai teen tries to stroke a drive along the ground in a game of gully cricket, afraid to slog the ball for fear that it might shatter the glass windows of the building next door. Enthusiastic Keralites are playing in the rain, allowing the tennis ball to soak up the moisture till it is too soggy to bounce. The faces of cricket-loving monks in Ladakh are shining with sweat, as they toil hard in a “friendly” all-day match in the snow-covered Himalayas.
Delhi youth are rotating strike under the entrance to a metro station,their voices echoing far and wide as the trains trundle past across the nation’s capital.