Cricket

They are mad for their cricket over here! Kids and adults are playing it in parks and streets all over the place. I'm loving walking round corners to find impromptu games going on where you'd least expect them. I haven't had the time to join in with any of them yet but I'm sure I will before long! I did have a session of roof cricket on top of our 4 story guesthouse with a 7-year old fellow resident from New Zealand who now lives in Bangladesh with his family. 'Out if you hit it over the fence' seemed a very understandable rule. Having ground down the young bowler with some textbook defensive resolve I began to take full advantage of William's tiring loose deliveries. Keeping the ball down was forefront in my mind and despite making the relevant adjustments to my shot selection I was disturbed when one fine 'all along the ground' drive bounced up off a plant pot, over the fence and plummeted the 4 stories down to the dusty Dhaka street. "Out" came the 'Umpire's' call. My dejection was quickly turned to happiness however with William's immediate race down the stairwell to fetch the ball and bring closer his next innings.

I've been trying to find out about organised cricket in Bangladesh to see if I can talk my way into a game somewhere. I'm afraid to say it's not looking good at the moment. Opportunities for organised cricket seem available only to narrow sections of society. Despite the passion for cricket and Dhaka having over 159 million residents there are surprisingly few decent cricket facilities in the area. And where there are clubs that train, their training sessions take place during working hours I found out yesterday - so playing competitive cricket and holding down a job is not really an option. Looks like I've got some difficult decisions to make! ;)

Chris