Crazy about cricket

Rains spell the end of any professional cricket match but streets of Karachi never got that memo

KARACHI:

Karachi. Rains spell the end of any professional cricket match - the conditions are just not suited for the sport. The streets of Karachi never got that memo. With the first drop of rain, earthworms, flying ants, and children with bats in their hands take to the streets of the city in almost similar quantities.

Of course those experiencing cricket in rain for the first time soon find out that there is a reason professional cricket is not played when it’s pouring. It is difficult to run, to see the ball, to play a shot or to basically do anything that makes cricket, well, cricket.

New rules are therefore made up. The bowler is not allowed to ball too fast. Too fast, of course, being any ball that the batsman misses. The batsman, in return, is not allowed to hit the ball too hard as finding it is equally difficult. Usually catching the ball on the first bounce is also considered out. The most ingenious of the lot, however, is that if the batsman hits a shot and the bat slips out of his hand, which happens quite often, then catching the bat dismisses the batsman just like catching the ball would.

The game almost always ends without a result as the ball invariably ends up getting lost before a conclusion can be reached.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 25^th, 2015.