81 All Out

We started with Delhi, moved to Karnataka, and now head to West Bengal for our next edition of the street cricket chronicles. Through this series we hope to bring out the cricket culture in different cities at the most amateur levels: whether it is on the streets, in the gullies and driveways and terraces, on beaches, or in the parks. In this episode we chat with two guests who grew up in Kolkata and Asansol in the 1980s and 1990s. Talking points: Rubber, Deuce, Rubber-Deuce and Cambis balls Influence of the long monsoon and early sunset on the street cricket dynamics Seasonal switch between cricket and football Genteel Kolkata and the not-so-genteel Asansol Parents as match referees Why Harbhajan Singh would have struggled in street cricket in West Bengal Pocket money? What is that alien concept? The contentious wide calls and the self-regulating rule Bricks as stumps and real-time Hawkeye problems Cricket as an individual sport and the near-universal chronology of batting and bowling line-ups The popularity