5 reasons why gully cricket is so popular in India

If you are a cricket crazy fan who has grown up in India idolising the biggest legends of the game, the chances are high that you have, at some stage, played gully cricket. Who can forget that famous century you scored which you would one day brag about to your grandson leaving behind the fact that the game was played in the tiniest of dusty by-lanes? Who can forget the madness and the intensity of endless players crowding the small field which was hosting ten matches at the same time?Gully cricket, because of its unique rules and contrivances, has a charm of its own. Think of the number of balls you have lost and the innumerable window-panes you had shattered with your eccentric lofted drive. The nostalgia of those days makes anyone want to go back to the yesteryears and play this crazy form of the game once again.Here are five reasons why gully cricket is so popular all over the country.

#1 Innovative ways of scoring runs

Gully cricket is often about placing the balls in the scoring areas

The charms of playing gully cricket lie in the endless self-invented rules that allow you to score runs in new and innovative ways. If you hit the ball directly on the wall on the leg side, you get two runs. And sometimes, if you hit a huge six, you are awarded eight or twelve runs depending on the rules in your local playground.

These innovative ways of scoring runs often help aspiring batsmen placement and timing as they try to hit appropriate targets to score more. But almost always, there are no runs scored when the ball goes behind the stumps which is not good news for a generation of emerging cricketers who need to perfect their scoops and uppercuts more than ever. The batsmen also have to be careful about the nearest pond, the window-pane and even the passer-by every time they go for a slog.

#2 Making the best use of available resources

Gully cricket can be quite challenging with makeshift bats and several close-in fielders

Gully cricket is unique because it can be played anywhere and with any number of players. Sometimes there are so many fielders that it becomes challenging to find a gap in the outfield. Sometimes, if the number of players are uneven, the youngest is often bullied to field for both the teams.

It is a fascinating form of the game where rules can be stretched and modified depending on the circumstances and the location. Bricks can be piled up on each other to act as stumps and even broomsticks can be used as makeshift bats at times.

The last-man rule also allows one batsman to carry on batting even after all the other players in his team have been dismissed and there is no other batsman at the non-striker's end. Since lbw was not considered a legal form of dismissal, bowlers will often threaten the batsmen with dire consequences if their stance guard too much of the stumps. There is thus a rule for everything to make the best possible use of the resources available.

#3 The no-ball rule

The umpire is a figure of much hatred from the bowling team in gully cricket

One of the strangest rules that gully cricket has is that the umpire can declare a no-ball if he believes that the ball has been delivered at a considerable pace. Now, it's not difficult to imagine that a rule that does not explain how fast the pace of the delivery has to be for it to be a no-ball leaves much room for ambiguity.

Since the umpire in gully cricket is always from the batting team - sometimes a batsman who just gets out immediately takes up his position as an umpire - he makes decisions almost blatantly in the favour of the batsmen.

So, every time a batsman gets out, he will give the umpire that fiery, accusatory glance and almost compel him to declare that the pace of the delivery was too much for it to be considered legitimate. If the umpire doesn't make a decision in the favour of the batting team, then after the match, basically all hellfire breaks loose.

#4 The perennially angry neighbour

The batsmen have to be wary of the window panes while hitting the big shots in gully cricket

Bat in hand, you think you are the next Dhoni and go for the full-fledged helicopter shot with gay abandon. Only to find then that the tennis ball has travelled with record speed and hit a passer-by in the street who chooses to shower you with the choicest expletives. How often has this happened with you?

But worse still, if the ball travels into the house of that dreaded neighbouring uncle. Like stock characters in Indian movies, anyone who has played gully cricket will know that the worst form of villain is this perennially, angry neighbour, the devil incarnate, who will threaten you if the ball flies into his house. No more cricket from tomorrow, he will tell you. Your parents must be informed, he will warn. And almost inevitably, he will never return the ball.

Such lurking danger calls for rules to be modified so that the game can go on peacefully. So, from the next time you hit the ball into the house of the selfish giant, you are declared out. Plus, there are other forms of dismissals to contend with; you can be declared out if you have hit a big enough six to lose the ball. Finding the ball becomes the added insult after being declared out -- you have to scale the walls, swim across the pond or sometimes even hunt inside the gutter to retrieve the palpably deformed and stinking ball.

#5 The quarrels

Quarrels are part and parcel of gully cricket

Which gully cricket player has never returned home with a bloody nose and wounded ego having borne the brunt of the local bully? The ambiguous rules leave a lot of space for disagreements which often leads to violent quarrels. The umpire from the batting team will almost always not raise his finger. And with no official scoreboard, players often clash about how many runs have been scored exactly at a given stage.

And then, of course, is the curious case of the local bully who will never be out. He can edge the ball to the wicket-keeper, he can be stumped or even his stumps can be shattered at times. But he cannot be out because even suggesting that he should walk might lead to a broken limb or bloody nose. So, when the bully turns up, you prepare for a long day in the field and go home empty handed.