Street cricket is a stripped down version of the international sport of cricket, popular across the Indian subcontinent and in other cricket playind nations. In the countryside, dried lakes and river beds are often used as playgrounds for cricket. In cities, it is played in apt corridors, apt parking lots, parks etc. People typically play street cricket in narrow bylanes, streets, and ghettos. The size of the road or traffic does not hinder the progress of a game; children often wait for the traffic to clear before playing consecutive deliveries. Bandhs (strikes), when the main roads are devoid of traffic, provide an occasion for children to take over wide
open spaces for a day.
Rules
The game requires a very small monetary investment with the mandatory entities being a ball and shoveled piece of wood called the bat / stumps. Tennis balls, specially made for cricket and slightly heavier than usual tennis balls are normally used. (Rubber balls are sometimes preferred because they are cheaper.) Used broom sticks or canes serve as stumps at the batsman's end while a piece of brick serves as the stumps at the bowler's end. When sticks and canes are not readily available, two stones with a gap of around 10 inches are kept on the ground. The players then assume the stumps to be at an imaginary height (usually above the waist level of the batsman). This leads to many interesting events as to whether the ball would have hit the stumps or not had the stumps been there for real. Sometimes the stumps are drawn on the walls: the advantages being, there isn't a need for a wicket keeper and the ball doesn't run away even when the batsman misses.
An interesting aspect of street cricket is the rules that apply while playing. These rules have been devised to cause the least public inconvenience while playing. Several innovative rules (e.g. Current, Half-crease, One-Man Gaaji, Last-Man Gaaji) are seen in Street Cricket, which make the game more interesting. While hitting a ball as far as you can in a cricket stadium is rewarded by runs, doing the same might shatter a few glass panes and thus put the future of the match in jeopardy. Hence batsmen with ultra aggressive instincts stand a very good chance of getting out very soon. Each venue carries its importance when the Wall-Catch rule comes into play. This game is also played in most school grounds during the breaks.
Toss
Coin Toss : This is the normally used toss where one random player (the "captain", typically the tallest member of the team) flips a coin and the opponent team "captain" calls. The team which wins it definitely chooses to bat first irrespective of pitch conditions, team strength etc.
In Or Out : The more innovative toss used when the team players have no coin to flip. A small piece of stone (dimension 5 - 10 mm diameter) is placed in the web between the thumb and the index finger. The team captain rotates his entire hand at a fast rate and finally asks the question, " In or Out". The opposing team captain has to guess whether the toss object (the same stone) is still in the hand or has been thrown out. If he guesses right he wins, otherwise he loses the toss. The best part of this toss is that the probability is always 0.5 since no human eye can track with certainty either the slipping of the tossed object or the presence of it between the fingers.
Flat or Dome : One more in the series of innovative methods of toss, when the players have a bat which resembles a cricket bat (one with a flat side and the other with a slight dome), the toss is done the following way. The bat is tossed in the air, the captains need to call whether the flat/the dome side of the bat is going to face upwards. Whoever calls it right wins the toss.
Even or Odd : One of the alternative methods to universal coin toss. A random monetory bill (rupee or note) is drawn by one of the captains, the opponent calls for odd or even. The "even or edd" value is derived by adding the circulation seqence number. Whoever has the correct call is the winner.
Colour or White : Yet another innovative method, toss is done by picking up a stray paper from the street with a special requirement - one face is supposedly white/light colour and other coloured/dark coloured/written text. A small chit (approximate 5 - 10 mm) is torn and thrown upwards, immediately the call is made while the chit is precraiously wobbling down. The chit touch's the ground, its colour of the face facing upwards makes one of them as a winner. Beware of windy conditions and an open manhole etc.
Umpires
Umpires are invariably from the batting side, and function on a rotating basis. Umpiring is a phenomenal source of controversy in Street Cricket, particularly because of this feature. Batsmen usually umpire until their turn to bat comes. Sometimes, umpires may be changed very often.
