State of street cricket in Karachi?

[Muhammad Saad]

It's very saddening to see the street cricket is non existent now compare to 15 years ago when I used to play as an early teenager , we used to had 8 teams in our town and we used to play friendlies and we used to mix up the teams from 8 to 4 and setup a proper tournament with prize money and every team had 5/6 fast bowlers who can bowl quick, now days teenagers in our town do play street cricket but they play the abomination of cricket like short pitch and one tip out , there are no teams and most of the youngsters dont know even how to bowl properly, I can say the same things for town like Clifton, defence , bahadurabad because I regularly go there , state of street cricket in those areas are horrific , is cricket really dying from our nation?

[mon858]

my guess is smartphones / screen time. curious to know if people from other regions have observed the same.

[Thunderbolt14]

my guess is smartphones / screen time. curious to know if people from other regions have observed the same.

More like security situation to be honest.

[Savak]

Someone made an interesting suggestion that the govt should make the PCB the sole authority on street cricket in Pakistan and where kids should be charged Rs 5-10 and the funds should go to the PCB.

[Varun]

Someone made an interesting suggestion that the govt should make the PCB the sole authority on street cricket in Pakistan and where kids should be charged Rs 5-10 and the funds should go to the PCB.

What crapola. I'm betting this "someone" is yourself.

[Savak]

What crapola. I'm betting this "someone" is yourself.

I wouldn't be oppossed to it. Street Cricket in Pakistan should be regulated and standardized in Pakistan

[Savak]

Street Cricket apparently has helped Pakistani pace bowlers in terms of being able to generate pace and have strong bowling muscles from Day 1. However it is detrimental to batsmen and batting techniques from day 1 as batsmen are forced to slog, hit across the line and these bad habits developed from an early age are very hard to fix, correct later on in professional cricket.

A friend of mine who played street cricket all his life in the streets of khi. He moved to the US and he started playing in the parking lots with his indian friends and to his surprise they refused to put tape on the tennis ball and insisted on playing with the tennis ball without the tape. He noticed the difference already where the ball was bouncing a bit more than usual and it took him a long while to adjust and he had to have a very good technique. He believes this is one of the main reasons why Indians are always producing better batsmen than Pakistan.

[Mamoon]

Someone made an interesting suggestion that the govt should make the PCB the sole authority on street cricket in Pakistan and where kids should be charged Rs 5-10 and the funds should go to the PCB.

This is the worst idea I have ever heard in any context. I am not joking.

[Mamoon]

Charging kids 5 and 10 rupees to play street cricket. OMG

[Savak]

This is the worst idea I have ever heard in any context. I am not joking.

It can be done, if they can pay money to buy bats, tennis balls, tape, they can afford to pay a token amount of Rs 5-10 rs per month for the right to play cricket on the streets. This will be a huge source of revenue generation for the PCB

[Savak]

In fact all these ex players laid off from the departments can be tasked with monitoring and coaching the kids playing street cricket on the streets and making sure the batsmen are batting with the right technique

[Thunderbolt14]

It can be done, if they can pay money to buy bats, tennis balls, tape, they can afford to pay a token amount of Rs 5-10 rs per month for the right to play cricket on the streets. This will be a huge source of revenue generation for the PCB

So it’s illegal to play cricket for free in your mohalla??? What

[Savak]

So it’s illegal to play cricket for free in your mohalla??? What

I guarantee you, that people will pay it for the right to play cricket. That's how passionate they are about the game

[Mamoon]

It can be done, if they can pay money to buy bats, tennis balls, tape, they can afford to pay a token amount of Rs 5-10 rs per month for the right to play cricket on the streets. This will be a huge source of revenue generation for the PCB

Even if we ignore the complete and utter ridiculousness of this nonsense idea, how on earth is PCB going to regulate it?

How many streets are there in Pakistan?

Are you going to appoint a full-time security guard in each and every street who would ensure that whenever a bunch of kids come out of their homes with their bats, balls, garden chairs and bricks, the security guard is going to demand Rs. 5 or 10 before they can play?

I would really like to hear more about this genius who came up with this idea.

[Mamoon]

In fact all these ex players laid off from the departments can be tasked with monitoring and coaching the kids playing street cricket on the streets and making sure the batsmen are batting with the right technique

So these players will just happen to hang around the streets and wait for kids to come out of their homes?

This is getting better and better.

[Savak]

Even if we ignore the complete and utter ridiculousness of this nonsense idea, how on earth is PCB going to regulate it?

How many streets are there in Pakistan?

Are you going to appoint a full-time security guard in each and every street who would ensure that whenever a bunch of kids come out of their homes with their bats, balls, garden chairs and bricks, the security guard is going to demand Rs. 5 or 10 before they can play?

I would really like to hear more about this genius who came up with this idea.

Where there is a will there is a way. I doubt street cricket is played in every street of Pakistan, but it is easy to pinpoint the streets where cricket is frequently played. All the players complaining about unemployment, this is how you can contribute to the cause of Pakistan Cricket

[Savak]

So these players will just happen to hang around the streets and wait for kids to come out of their homes?

This is getting better and better.

There is a designated time slot where kids start playing, no one wants to play under the scorching heat so they probably end up playing from 4 pm to 7 pm.

[Saj]

Cricket is losing its appeal in Pakistan.

Too many of the new generation are trying to come up with plans to get out of the country, rip someone off, cheat overseas relatives, spend all day doing nothing other than watching films or sitting on their phone.

Dishonesty rules, why watch cricket.

[Mamoon]

There is a designated time slot where kids start playing, no one wants to play under the scorching heat so they probably end up playing from 4 pm to 7 pm.

So first PCB will identify the streets across the country where cricket is played, and then they will allocate domestic cricketers who would hang around these streets from 4 pm to 7 pm, hoping that the kids will show up?

Does anyone of this sound remotely practical and feasible?

[Mamoon]

Where there is a will there is a way. I doubt street cricket is played in every street of Pakistan, but it is easy to pinpoint the streets where cricket is frequently played. All the players complaining about unemployment, this is how you can contribute to the cause of Pakistan Cricket

Will or lack of will, there is never a way when the idea is as stupid as this one. Perhaps you can ask the person who came up with this idea to explain to us how he intends of organize and regulate this ridiculously impractical idea?

[Savak]

So first PCB will identify the streets across the country where cricket is played, and then they will allocate domestic cricketers who would hang around these streets from 4 pm to 7 pm, hoping that the kids will show up?

Does anyone of this sound remotely practical and feasible?

How do you think the PSL Franchises are finding players from the streets in their talent hunt schemes? They have scouts who travel to search for unique talent

[Mamoon]

How do you think the PSL Franchises are finding players from the streets in their talent hunt schemes? They have scouts who travel to search for unique talent

No one goes to streets to find players. You arrange talent hunts and let players from the streets give trials. You identify the prospects and then you put them in the system.

If you appoint a person to go around the streets and tell kids to pay Rs. 10 per person before they can play, that person is going to get his backside whooped and he will not show up again.

[Savak]

No one goes to streets to find players. You arrange talent hunts and let players from the streets give trials. You identify the prospects and then you put them in the system.

If you appoint a person to go around the streets and tell kids to pay Rs. 10 per person before they can play, that person is going to get his backside whooped and he will not show up again.

Hence why the govt needs to support the PCB and pass a law therefore giving people who play on the streets no choice

[JattMaula]

Charging kids 5 and 10 rupees to play street cricket. OMG

Whut?!?!? What the what?

What?

What?

Again, what?

@Savak

[Varun]

Hence why the govt needs to support the PCB and pass a law therefore giving people who play on the streets no choice

This is ridiculous.

What are we, Soviet Russia?

[Savak]

Extremely disappointed to see the complete close mindedness to out of the box thinking over here. No wonder things don't improve or progress

[Bigboii]

Cricket is losing its appeal in Pakistan.

Too many of the new generation are trying to come up with plans to get out of the country, rip someone off, cheat overseas relatives, spend all day doing nothing other than watching films or sitting on their phone.

Dishonesty rules, why watch cricket.

you're sounding like my mum I could definitely picture her saying these things about her Pakistani relatives and kids
but don't be too harsh when the economy of a country is bad people become demotivated and our country is going through bad times for years know

as soon as economic situation improves these same kids would be hustling like Americans and working like Japanese people IA
Sports and everything else would also pick up, have faith!

[Zeshan547]

@Savak bro give it a rest, this is just ridiculous on so many levels. As if our poor kids have lot of options for recreation that now we should even start charging them to play street cricket. Now you see, and it's just one of problem with this earth shaking idea.

[Savak]

@Savak bro give it a rest, i think you have to much time on hands these days, this is just ridiculous on so many levels. As if our poor kids have lot of options for recreation that now we should even start charging them to play street cricket. Now you see, and it's just one of problem with this earth shaking idea.

Its actually not far fetched at all. Kids pay a lot more for video games and the expenses involved in playing street cricket. Why not try to encash on it? Its not a difficult idea to implement if done correctly after lengthy brain storming

[Saj]

you're sounding like my mum I could definitely picture her saying these things about her Pakistani relatives and kids

She's right.

Too many wanting the easy life, the easy way out, don't want to work hard and want everything handed on a plate to them.

[Thunderbolt14]

Its actually not far fetched at all. Kids pay a lot more for video games and the expenses involved in playing street cricket. Why not try to encash on it? Its not a difficult idea to implement if done correctly after lengthy brain storming

Surely you’re trolling?

Let’s ignore how impractical it is to implement such an idea Even if you charge 10 rupees from 100,000 kids you end up with a grand total of $6000

[Savak]

Surely you’re trolling?

Let’s ignore how impractical it is to implement such an idea Even if you charge 10 rupees from 100,000 kids you end up with a grand total of $6000

100,000 kids? We are talking about a million plus kids in Pakistan

[YousafTheBeast]

Off topic, I’m going Karachi next week, does anyone know where I could get a good game of cricket without having to join a club?

[offstump]

Just send the PCB Rs. 5-10 and they’ll hook you up with a game

[ElRaja]

i dont know what its like now, but when i was a kid, even if a smaller city like pindi there was always cricket games going on, my own tiny village had its own team which played in a local league and literally everyone's records were jotted down in this massive ledger my cousin used to keep.

i pointed down to his name and he had like 6000 runs at an average of 33, and i was like that average isnt that good, and hes like that's why im still in this league, or something to that effect. finding someone cricket obsessed, young, adult or old back then was easy.

[BunnyRabbit]

Street Cricket apparently has helped Pakistani pace bowlers in terms of being able to generate pace and have strong bowling muscles from Day 1. However it is detrimental to batsmen and batting techniques from day 1 as batsmen are forced to slog, hit across the line and these bad habits developed from an early age are very hard to fix, correct later on in professional cricket.

A friend of mine who played street cricket all his life in the streets of khi. He moved to the US and he started playing in the parking lots with his indian friends and to his surprise they refused to put tape on the tennis ball and insisted on playing with the tennis ball without the tape. He noticed the difference already where the ball was bouncing a bit more than usual and it took him a long while to adjust and he had to have a very good technique. He believes this is one of the main reasons why Indians are always producing better batsmen than Pakistan.

Without tape on the ball, it goes like a saucepan, tape enhances the pace and control on the ball. A lot of kids learn reverse swing from tape ball by ripping some tape on one side. Your comments on this forum come across like you haven't played cricket on the streets ever.

[Thunderbolt14]

Without tape on the ball, it goes like a saucepan, tape enhances the pace and control on the ball. A lot of kids learn reverse swing from tape ball by ripping some tape on one side. Your comments on this forum come across like you haven't played cricket on the streets ever.

Tape ball is great for learning about reverse swing. I’ve had lots of fun personally swinging the ball hoops with just one side taped.

[Suleiman]

Tape ball is great for learning about reverse swing. I’ve had lots of fun personally swinging the ball hoops with just one side taped.

Yep. Exactly. But then you need extra heaps of tape on hand because that half tapes come off p soon.

[pillionrider]

The early interactions between Savak and Mamoon on this thread are Think I'll bookmark this, to return to from time to time.

On topic, the situation is actually not dissimilar in India in the cities. Most urban kids are into football. The packaging on the channels and marketing is amazing with massive billboards, and kids talk mostly football when they're into sport. Sadly it's a bgrade league like the EPL and not even about Messi or Ronaldo.

The only time you see kids playing cricket is during IPL season in cities.

What has changed though is the massive improvement in the quality and knowledge of cricket in rural India.

However judging cricket in cities based on visibility is dangerous here because there is another beast in the city. The cricket academy. Every chota nobody has opened a coaching centre in all nooks. So the kids in cities who are interested in cricket are busy going for coaching. And while it's a very small percentage, the vastness of the population still makes this a large number.

I'm not sure whether robotic coaching is a great thing. And how this will affect the flair and other skills that would otherwise have been honed on the streets. The advantage is the numbers. So there'll be plenty of coaches allowing and encouraging these traits and enough of such kids slipping through the robotic systems, some of which are run by scammers with not much of an idea about cricket.

I guess my point is - if you were to go by visibility in cities, you'd think cricket was dead in India. Not just dying.

[Babbar]

100,000 kids? We are talking about a million plus kids in Pakistan

Oh there must indeed be million plus kids who play cricket in streets now but there will be <10000 left when you start charging them 5Rs. LOL.


Also how will we enforce the payment - In 99.99% of India, government is not able to even enforce the illegal street parking penalty.

[Thunderbolt14]

Oh there must indeed be million plus kids who play cricket in streets now but there will be <10000 left when you start charging them 5Rs. LOL.


Also how will we enforce the payment - In 99.99% of India, government is not able to even enforce the illegal street parking penalty.

Even if we somehow miraculously get a million kids to shell out 10 rs (not 5) that still ends up as only $62,000 @Savak it’s just not feasible!

[pillionrider]

I'm not sure Savak understand what happens when you go trying to boss people who are armed with cricket bats and wickets


@Savak did you factor in the inevitable corruption? Like the kids making a deal to pay 2 bucks instead of 5 or 10. Or would you like to install CCTVs to prevent this. And then maybe, tens of thousands can further gain employment to scour through CCTV footage everyday and make a note of streets where shady deals are happening.

Why am I even analyzing this further

[Cryin Out Loud]

I'm riffing on this idea - as someone with experience in management, IMO the idea of a board regulating street cricket is unfeasible operationally, financially or even from an organisational perspective. Not happening.

However, if one were to along parallel lines, I have seen an insane amount of 'unofficial' (not BCCI or state board sanctioned)cricket tournaments being organised across India.

These are set up by political parties, local bodies, NGOs and businessmen etc. Depending on geography, Urban or rural, these could attract teams within a 5 km square to a 50, and the prize money could go into lakhs.

In the rural areas I frequent, the business model is that each team chips in (say) Rs 2,000-Rs 3,000, and 15-20 teams participate. A little more is chipped in by the organiser and it all distributed a prize money.

Its an insanely popular trend but it requires no official intervention of any sort. Just people doing what they want to do and having a good time doing it, with the financials being sorted out by the participants.

I've watched several of these tournaments and these teams are just your standard 15-18 year old kids with varying levels of talent. I haven't seen the next Bumrah or even the next Debashish Mohanty. But I am dead certain that this is the only model at the ground level that can sustainably create the beginnings of a pipeline that will end in a district, state of national career.

[BunnyRabbit]

Tape ball is great for learning about reverse swing. I’ve had lots of fun personally swinging the ball hoops with just one side taped.

Well me being an SLAO would only use the exposed area for some uneven spin and bounce. Don't know why Savak even credited the ball without tape to India producing superior batters.

Savak has made this thread really funny with his ideas.

[shujaatraza]

Extremely disappointed to see the complete close mindedness to out of the box thinking over here. No wonder things don't improve or progress

There is a difference between out of the box and ridiculous thinking..what you are saying and even persisting with it is not out of the box..your idea will only result in kids no more playing cricket if it is somehow implemented..imagine asking your father for 10 rupees to play cricket in your street lol.

[TNAmarkFromIndia]

No reason PCB can't conduct street/gully cricket tournaments. Find newspaper partners to cover the games locally. Even better, find a TV partner and televise it. I remember there used to be a show called "Full Toss" on a kids channel called Hungama in India where kids played tennis ball cricket in an indoor venue.

[Babbar]

Let me invert the idea. How about PCB paying 10Rs to every kid playing in the streets for at least 2 hours, making it 20Rs for a female player. This won’t cost PCB much but will produce better quality players and more excitement in gallo-mohallas. And then having inter-city street cricket competition where PCB can get sponsors, may be just parents of the kids. This will help in registration of the kid players also.

PCB can earn enough from PSL, media rights and stadium tickets when even 1-2 from these million street kids becomes exciting players in 10-15 years.

[happydavy]

I guarantee you, that people will pay it for the right to play cricket. That's how passionate they are about the game

pay how? You know this is not technically possible or legally enforceable. PCB didn't invent cricket, and even if they did they can't have an IP on the game of cricket, and if they had an IP, they can't stop people from playing non-commercial cricket.

[shortbread]

Cricket is losing its appeal in Pakistan.

Too many of the new generation are trying to come up with plans to get out of the country, rip someone off, cheat overseas relatives, spend all day doing nothing other than watching films or sitting on their phone.

Dishonesty rules, why watch cricket.

dark!

[shortbread]

It can be done, if they can pay money to buy bats, tennis balls, tape, they can afford to pay a token amount of Rs 5-10 rs per month for the right to play cricket on the streets. This will be a huge source of revenue generation for the PCB

GENIUS!

I think you are onto something here. Children must cough up and pay their dues for using the facilities provided.

My only suggestion is it should be like a monthly subscription like Netflix. So instead of Rs.10/day, more like Rs.200-250/month.

[TNAmarkFromIndia]

Children must cough up and pay their dues for using the facilities provided.

My only suggestion is it should be like a monthly subscription like Netflix. So instead of Rs.10/day, more like Rs.200-250/month.

What facilities does PCB own that can be lent for street cricket? Savak's idea is to make kids pay for playing on their own streets, as if PCB owns those streets.

[Varun]

Ah I remember this thread from a few months ago.

[Pakpak]

This has been the funniest thread ever