Mad About Cricket (The Ordinary Moments)

It’s been a while since I joined in with The Ordinary Moments, a photo adventure which celebrates those very special moments – or the very ordinary.

Shivam has been mad about cricket ever since I can remember and watches every format of the game – be it 20/20, One-Day Internationals or Test matches. It doesn’t matter to him which team is playing either. And he’s a huge supporter of women’s cricket and loves telling me all the facts and stats and which players are the ones to watch.So when he told us two years ago that he wanted to play, we enrolled him in a local team. At first, he was quite nervous as some of the other kids had been playing since they were five – and it showed in their skills. But we told him just to enjoy the experience and for us, at least he was being active. We’ve always encouraged both kids to take up hobbies, sports and extra-curricular activities.

LEARNING THE GAME

Over the last two years, he’s been learning the technicals of the game and putting that into practice in matches. He played competitively for the first time last year, taking part in league games and the Cup competition for the Under 10s team. They won the Cup and were runners-up in the league, so it was quite a successful season.

He plays cautiously at times and sometimes his nerves get the better of him. But he’s only 10 and hasn’t been playing for long. Once he gets a bit more experience under his belt, I know he’ll play a bit more fearlessly and take risks.He was just finding his momentum at the end of the last season and waiting for the 2020 season with bated breath. But then Covid happened and everything went out of the window. A few weeks in, winter training sessions were cancelled. And of course, the competitive season, which normally kicks off in April, was not able to go ahead.

COVID STRUCK!

Once lockdown eased slightly, outdoor training began and the coaches worked super hard to schedule in some games. Of course, these were all friendly matches but it was good for the team to play competitively. It meant a much later season. In fact, we still have a game to go on Friday.

But every parent and teammate has been glad of the chance to play and for 2020 not to be a complete write-off. Thankfully, we’ve been blessed with a sunny September, with only one match being affected by rain.

We’ve become friends with a lot of the parents and it’s so nice to be able to share banter at the matches. We love cheering on our team together and I think we feel more tense than the kids at times! It’s nice to see each parent looking out for all the kids. We’ve sort of become a family, catching up and having a natter at training sessions and match days.
The coaches have been following all the Covid safety measures, with the teams having regular sanitisation breaks and parents having to check-in at the ground for track and trace purposes. Parents were even forbidden to pick up and throw the ball back into the field if it crossed the boundary.

2020 SEASON

This year, Shivam’s been playing for both the Under 10’s and Under 11’s team. He’d not ever played with a hard ball before and it was a step up for him. He feels more confident bowling than batting but he’s keen on improving in both areas.

Unfortunately, even though we have a park just down the road from us, we’ve not been keen to take him. Despite lockdown, it’s been really busy and there have been a lot of people not following social distancing guidelines. Yet he needs the space to be able to perfect his game.Hopefully, post-Covid we’ll be able to invest more time in helping him to train. In the meantime, we’re all mad about cricket and enjoying watching the Indian Premier League. Shivam’s picking up tips from the professionals!

While you’re here, check out my recent post about life post-lockdown.