India is the land of culture, tradition, yoga...and cricket! Tourists can't get enough of the first three and we Indians can't get enough of the last! Having learned the game from our one-time conquerors, the Brits, we've modified it many times over to bring in a more local appeal. We've given it names like "box cricket" and "gully cricket" and introduced our own rules to either ensure a fast-paced game or to insure against breaking our neighbour's windows!Last weekend, while on a family vacation in Dapoli, I witnessed my first game of beach cricket. Not that I've never seen people play cricket on the beach, but there's a difference between a bunch of holidayers hitting a ball around the beach and a bunch of local kids coming together for a quick game of cricket before the sun goes down. The latter is all business! What made it more interesting is that these kids weren't playing on the beach because it was a novelty; it was probably their only play ground close to home. And yet again, the game was modified to suit the arena. Hitting the ball into the sea restricted the batsman to one run, and to quicken the pace—these kids had to get back to running their family-owned shops in the village and everyone wanted to bat—every batsman had to take one run of two balls. Simple rules, and loads of fun!
