Rendezvous with Kallar

Today was the last day of the school before it closed down for summer holidays for 40 days. Incidentally, it rained from morning till afternoon. It wasn't heavy except a few spells, which would not last for more than 5 min.

As expected, students were in holiday mood and teachers were busy finishing up their administrative work before the closure. With such a beautiful weather, it made all the sense to enjoy the good weather and have some outdoor fun. Just like rest of the country, kids here also practise the national religion with great fervour. So, we decided to play a limited over cricket match. Though, this time it was with a difference. For the first time in the school, girls played cricket that too as part of a match with boys !!!

Most of the boys were enthusiastic about the proposal, though some were sceptical also. Anyway, we created two teams - one of girls and one of boys and the match started. It was a limited-overs game of just 5 overs. Girls won the toss and decided to bowl. Before girls started bowling, I gave them some quick tips on how to bowl, from where to bowl, how to field etc. As soon as the match started, one of those heavy spells of rain started, but none of the teams were ready to stop the match. They pleaded to continue the match and I gave up in front of their overflowing enthusiasm. So, in that downpour, the first two overs were bowled. Considering that girls were playing for the very first time, the bowling was pretty much haywire - too many wides were bowled and runs just flew from the bat. Anyway, it was quite a sight to see girls struggling and slowly getting a hang of fielding.

Just a sidebar, there are two relatively good umpires amongst boys, who are being trained by me. During the initial days, I coached these two about no-balls, wide balls, how to count the number of balls, concept of "live" ball, how not to come in the way of live ball etc. One of these boys offered to umpire the match and he did a decent job. Also, in every match someone sitting on the sidelines as an observer plays the role of scorer, who takes care of counting runs and overs.

Once girls finished their 5 overs, it was their turn to bat. Before they started, I explained to them the concept of crease, changing sides when an over is finished, running between the wickets etc. When they started, I observed that most of them didn't even know how to hold the bat, so I had to explain it to almost all of them. Again, since it was their first time, they all got out very quickly and finally lost the match.


After this, boys decided to play a limited over match amongst themselves. Girls were not happy and wanted to play again, but this time, they decided to play amongst themselves. They formed two teams of 6 members each and requested me to allow them to play a limited over game. I asked them to wait until boys finished their match, and meanwhile watch boys how they field, run between wickets, catch and throw the ball etc. Most of them did it quite diligently.


Once boys finished their match, I declared that now the two teams of girls would play a match amongst themselves. Boys were not very happy about it, as they wanted to play another match, but I didn't give them a choice. So, another limited over match started, but this time just amongst girls. Again, one of the boys umpired the match. This was an interesting match because both sides were very close to each other in terms of experience and skills. The funny feature of this match was that when ball used to go to a rough terrain the boys used to do the fielding and throw the ball back.


By now, the girls were totally into cricket, and wanted to play another match. So, I proposed to have another match between boys and girls which boys protested. Girls were also not comfortable considering their debacle in the first match. So, we created mixed teams - each team had 4 boys and 4 girls - on the premise that girls need to learn from boys how to play better. Both these teams played match with each other, again a limited over game. During this time, I got called to meet someone who came to school to see me, so I couldn't oversee the match. But, I was told it was quite a good match, except a minor dispute towards the end.

Overall, it was a very interesting day at school - watching the enthusiasm of girls, how they struggled and finally became better, at least in batting and fielding, how guys and girls together formed a mixed team and played with each other. Most of the teachers observed the matches at some point in time. So far, I haven't heard any murmurs. I am keeping my fingers crossed.