Gully cricket recolletions...

[Ram]

Every Indian who lived in a city knows what term "Gully cricket" means. Every colony will have this one neighbour who really hates young boys playing cricket and invariably the ball seems to go into their house more than anybody else's. Not to mention that , it is these neighours , who almost matchingly have dogs. So you just cant sneak into the house and get the ball without anybody noticing. And who can forget the 25 rs cosco cricket ball , the 3.50 rs plastic ball or the Milo bats ! In my early teens, I lived in an apartment where there were around 12-13 boys of my age and cricket was the sole past time then. Week-day or weekend , day or night ( yes the apartment open spaces were well lighted ) , all we did was to play cricket. And almost EVERYDAY we used to break something or the other , be it a common tubelight , or a window or a flower vase. The residents of ground floor used to shout their throats out at us , but we never bothered. It all got so serious that, at one stage , a meeting was called among all the inmates and it was decided that NOBODY should play any sport in the ground floor. We are relegated to the terrace. And there is nothing worse than playing cricket in the terrace. Once every 10 mins, the ball used to fly of the edge. In the summer holidays , we ventured into playing cricket in the open grounds. There was this football ground called Somasundaram ground in our area.Only , i have NEVER seen football being played in it. In weekends , there would almost be 200-300 guys playing cricket there. We affectionately used to call it SCG or " Somasundaram cricket ground". And because Chennai was oppressively hot during summer , we couldnt afford to start playing at 9 or 10 in the morning. So all of us used to get up at 6.30 , collect all the personnel and start the game at 7. We used to play till 10 , come back home , bathe-eat-relax and when it was 3.30-ish the afternoon , would go back to the ground and play till 6.30 in the evening. Those were some truly memorable days ! Whats your Gully cricket recollection ?

[The Outsider]

Nice read, will have to contribute later. Sriram is it okay if I move this to the cricket section?

[Ram]

No problemo !