fbpx
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
Thursday, February 2, 2023
  • Login
WRITE FOR US
Economy.pk
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • Technology
  • Education
  • Life & Style
  • Health
  • World
  • Videos
No Result
View All Result
Economy.pk
  • Economy
  • Politics
  • Technology
  • Education
  • Life & Style
  • Health
  • World
  • Videos
Economy.pk
Home Life & Style Entertainment

Street Glory – Golden Leaves in the Annals of Nostalgia

byProf. Zak
July 30, 2020
in Entertainment, Life & Style
Reading Time: 5 mins read
0
Street Glory – Golden Leaves in the Annals of Nostalgia
39
SHARES
708
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

If you’re Pakistani you’re familiar with cricket. You’ve either played it, watched it, or heard about it. To a young Pakistani male, cricket is an undeniable rush that propels the Ferris wheel of life. I remember my own days as a schoolboy when cricket was like the second religion we all quietly followed. We talked about it, we played it, and we sure as day watched it – televised or live. Such is the Pakistani obsession with the cricket that when Pakistan won the World Cup in 1992, the Pakistani director of the most famous Television channel in Dubai’s media history, Channel 33, actually interrupted regular transmission to run patriotic Pakistani songs to express unison with the emotional expatriate Pakistani community who were over the moon with joy. The street cricket and the street glory meant everything to the players who played the game.

For the Pakistani kids growing up in Dubai, that unsung passion for the sport was no less than our brethren back home. Every vacant parking lot, building basement, alley, playground, park, or walkway was a cricket oval and each game was a quest for fame. At times, these friendly cricket games were instrumental in boosting morale for budding participants. The outcome of each game was a yardstick by which individual performances were measured, evaluated, and discussed. For me personally, along with the other kids in my class at school and in my neighborhood, street cricket was the stepping stone towards playing the more realistic version of the game on an actual pitch in the formal white cricket gear; at times, with seasoned veterans of the game.

RelatedPosts

Lahore restaurants allowed to operate till 11pm

Balochistan receives $3m from Barrick Gold under Reko Diq agreement

Top 10 Places to Visit in Bahawalpur

Street Glory

The Night Cricket – Street Glory

Another form of cricket that was popular in the UAE at the time was Night cricket especially during the Muslim Holy month of fasting, as the grounds were abundant and power outages were mythical folklore so we indulged abundantly. The regular red cork ball would be replaced with a white cork ball and the games would proceed at night time instead of the day. This would offer some respite from the desert sun as well as making many a memorable tournament a topic of discussion for days, at times weeks.

When I was actively a part of this cricket sub-culture that governed our lives back in those days, I got to play many a game that was glorified. For instance, I can never forget one game I played as an extra for the Dubai Aluminium Company on their private cricket ground where I took a catch off the bowling of the UAE spin king who also captained the Emirates Cricket Board side in the 1996 World Cup, and he patted my back in acknowledgment. Similarly, in one school game, I hit a swashbuckling 68 runs in just 30 some odd deliveries, an innings that became the talk of the school the next day. Street Glory was all we wanted and hailed in that moment as well.

Golden Leaves in the Annals of Nostalgia

 There are countless such historic games that are golden leaves in the annals of nostalgia but there is one game in particular that I cannot forget even if I wanted to – a story for the ages as they say. It was Ramadan 1993, and three of my friends who were regular players in our residential community team that I also captained had joined an external team called Bombay Cricket Club (BCC). The captain of the BCC was an Indian guy from Goa who himself was not that much of a prolific player but with the three new outstanding additions to his team in the form of my players, he had hit a jackpot of sorts. He had enlisted the team in a Night Cricket League that was being played at one of the Dubai Labor Supply Company’s cricket grounds in Sonapur (a suburban district of Dubai City). For one very important game, the team had fallen short of a player by accident and I had been requested to tag along as a replacement at the last hour.

Street Glory

The game I was invited to play in was the final match with BCC’s arch-rival and it was a significant game as there was a cash prize in the kitty. For an otherwise perfunctory game, I had mostly been in the shadows for the whole match as I had bowled a couple of expensive overs without picking up a wicket, and the boys in the top order had played a good game to start off with a decent run chase but the middle order had collapsed embarrassingly.

The Moment of Glory – The Street Glory

Without any premonition as though Lady Glory was seeking me out on a prayer and a whisper, the match converged into a precarious position where we needed a few runs to win with the last batter in at the non-striker end, and myself at the striker end. It came down to a very tight finish with a measly 4 runs required in 3 balls and the opposing team’s lead strike bowler hurling in speedy incoming yorkers that are generally hard to pick out as it is. With 2 balls left to the match, and our captain having bit off half his hand as a side dish to his nails that he kept biting nervously even as this legendary finish unfolded out in the middle, I played a smashing cover-drive bowler’s back that raced to the boundary fence like a tracer bullet. I had scored 9 invaluable runs in 7 balls faced and had instrumentally won a game that was otherwise hanging by a ledge.

The sizable Sonapur crowd that had gathered around for the game, along with members of my team, and the food vendors that had set up stalls to sell hot tea and hard-boiled eggs all rushed on to the ground at once. I just remember a sea of human heads raging towards me like a high surf in the ocean. The entire crowd lifted me up on their shoulders and carried me off the ground hailing me as the hero for the night with one vendor actually gifting me an egg in sheer joy. Not only had I cemented my place in the BCC side, but a personal legend was born that night; a timeless moment of glory that is precious enough to be passed down for generations.

Tags: 1992 Cricket World CupBCCBombay Cricket ClubCricketDubaiEntertainmentGully CricketNight CricketPakistan cricketStreet Glory
Prof. Zak

Prof. Zak

Related Posts

Lahore restaurants allowed to operate till 11pm

Lahore restaurants allowed to operate till 11pm

Retracting its earlier order to close markets and restaurants at 10 pm owing to smog, the Lahore High Court (LHC)...

Balochistan receives $3m from Barrick Gold under Reko Diq agreement

Balochistan receives $3m from Barrick Gold under Reko Diq agreement

According to a press release from Barrick Gold Corporation, the first $3 million of the new Reko Diq deal has...

Next Post
Will Coronavirus bring an End to Globalization?

Will Coronavirus bring an End to Globalization?

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recommended

KP policemen take to streets in uniform against Peshawar suicide bombing

KP policemen take to streets in uniform against Peshawar suicide bombing

Mohammad Wasim Develops Flashlight which Lights Up from Body Heat

Mohammad Wasim Develops Flashlight which Lights Up from Body Heat

PM Shehbaz Sharif Calls for Implementing Nationwide Solarization

PM Shehbaz Sharif Calls for Implementing Nationwide Solarization

Railway fares jacked up by eight percent

Railway fares jacked up by eight percent

Sheikh Rashid arrested by Islamabad police in late-night raid

Sheikh Rashid arrested by Islamabad police in late-night raid

Pakistan Beat Palestine 11-3 in the Final of the West Asia Cup 2023 in Islamabad

Pakistan Beat Palestine 11-3 in the Final of the West Asia Cup 2023 in Islamabad

Connect with us

Twitter

Economy.pk

Economy.pk touches diverse topics with a lighter note and is geared toward audiences with various interests and all ages. Come and explore Economy.pk. Ample details and analysis are provided in extraordinarily readable manner making them compelling and interesting at the same time.

Category

  • World
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Technology
  • Education
  • Health
  • Life & Style
  • Opinions

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Linkedin

Sitelinks

  • Sitemap

Download our APP

download on android app download on apple app
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact

© 2023 All Rights Reserved Economy.pk | Designed & Developed by Digital Otters

  • VIDEOS
  • World
    • Europe
    • Americas
    • Asia
    • Oceania
    • Africa
    • Middle East
  • Finance
  • Politics
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Finance
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Real Estate
  • Technology
    • Cyber Security
    • Mobiles
    • Social Media
  • Education
  • Sports
  • Life & Style
    • Personalities
    • Art
    • Culture
    • History
    • Entertainment
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Health
      • Environment
      • Fitness
  • Sponsored

© 2023 All Rights Reserved Economy.pk | Designed & Developed by Digital Otters

No Result
View All Result

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In