Cricket & Christ

Today I got up and going at 8am . Now, we've been working 12 hour days and we worked Saturday, so this was a pretty great feat on my part. None of my counterparts made it, so I went off on my own. It was the cricket tournement day, so I was going to try to catch the matches.

Sham told me that it was at St. John's High School, but said that it was near the hotel. Just to be sure, I hopped in a rickshaw and told the driver what I wanted. He said sure, but that it was 3-4 kilometers. This seemed wrong, so I quized him a bit about it, but he was convinced. So off we went.

The drive was interesting. St. John's street goes through some funky territory before it gets into a row of schools. Oxen tied to streetposts, people sleeping in thatch lean-to's; that sort of thing. But we get there. Like the other schools, it's a walled compound so I cruise up and explain to the security guy that I'm there for the cricket. "No, no!" he barks, "You go to church- go." Ah. It's Sunday. The compound has a central church. I walk around looking for cricket, but nothing. I can hear the singing in the church and decide that it's a pretty good idea to check out the service, so I step in.

The place filled up and they had lawn chairs set up outside so they could hear through the open doors. It seemed like a Catholic Mass, but with more singing. There was a guest minister and he spoke very candidly about the fear of death. But he worked in an amusing story about how as a child he and his friends threw an old man's cigar into the bushes.

Afterwards, I scooted back to the hotel and called Sasi, who totally came through as always and next thing you knew I was at the pitch. Turns out it was "St. Joseph's" not St John's.

The tourney was mostly a company outing with departmental teams competing. They served food and coffee. The girls played a game like volleyball only it was "catch ball", you just catch it and throw it back. The graphics girls won, so there was quite a bit of cheering. I love hollering at things like this so of course I went for the gusto.

The graphics department had two cricket teams; Sham's Daredevils and Sasi's Super Kings. The hope was that the two would meet in the finals. The Super Kings were champs two years running, but Sham's squad was very promising.

While we waited, I took a few swings and tried my hand at bowling. I had a hard time with the swing. I kept wanting to take a baseball stance. I think I bowled a little better. Later Hare Krishna was kind enough to explain some points of the game.

That's Hare Krishna in the white hat, taking a cut. He was in Los Al with us. He looks a bit like my old friend Rupinder Gill, so I was predisposed to like him right away. And he's very nice and friendly. He's also very interested in cricket and was patient enough to explain some of it to me. He's one of the Super Kings with Sasi. When we left, they were headed into the finals.

Things didn't go as well for the Daredevils. They made it to the semis after several victories but there they ran into a tough squad. They were down 125. One guy kept hitting homers until Sham made a great diving catch and caught him out. Sham did well bowling too, that's him in the first picture of this entry getting airborne as he comes in on a batsman.

Then it was the Daredevil's turn. They came within 19 or so, but they basically ran out of time. They only play so many "overs" and they couldn't come back far enough. They made a strong showing though. Here, controversy erupts as to whether a shot was worth six or four points. We got the six, but just ran out of time.

Again, I have to comment on how nicely I was treated. Everyone talked to me, answered my questions, fed me and basically couldn't be nicer. It was such fun that I stayed well longer than I expected and ended up with a good sunburn even though I kept to the shade.