Cricket’s country cousin thrives on the fast lane

"Big deal. We play such matches everyday," says 26-year-old Amit Gholatkar.

Gholatkar has been playing professional cricket for almost nine years now. He belongs to a rare breed that makes a living off tennis ball cricket.

Living in the shadows of present-day cricket is never easy, as other sports have discovered. Tennis-ball cricket, however, has not merely survived over the years; it has a fan following of its own.

What started off as a weekend past-time for cricket-lovers has now developed into a cut-throat competitive sport.

"There is pots of money involved. That is thereason why it has started to attract so much attention," reveals Shantanu Gaichur, another professional tennis ball cricketer.

On an average, Mumbai alone hosts three-four tournaments a week, each boasting of prize-money ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh. And with matches played throughout the year, except for the monsoon season, crores of money are at stake.

There are as many as 16 professional cricket clubs in and around Mumbai which play on a regular basis. Among these, Rahul Cricket Club (Parel), Matchless (Vile Parle), Precis (Borivali) and Sainath XI (Dadar) are the big four that invariably battle for the winner’s prize.

Says Gaichur, who plays for Matchless: "If you are a member of one of the top teams you can easily earn Rs 50,000 to 60,000 a year." If that sounds lucrative to you, here’s the catch. You make money only if you win the final. "It is very unpredictable," says Dinesh Yadav of Silver Sports, a patron to many tennis-ball cricketers. "There is no guarantee you will earn money here.It is better to work elsewhere and play only as a pastime."

For players like Gaichur and Gholatkar, it is the only source of income till their job-hunt bears fruit.

One of the major driving force behind this sport are the `packers’ — a slang for financial backers — who support the team. Their job is to get the team together for a tournament and foot the entry fee, often five per cent of the prize money.

Packers are generally of two types. The first ones have a passion for the sport and are usually members of the team. The second look to make money out of it.

And then there are a few eccentric packers who are only interested in the trophies that the team wins. To hell with the prize-money!

Sponsorship is an essential part of any sport and tennis-ball cricket is no different. Surprisingly there is no dearth of it. "There are a lot of people who have the money to spend," reveals Yadav. "Who doesn’t want publicity?"

If you think one-day cricket is fast, tennis-ball cricket is a 200mphroller-coaster. With all the scoring to be done in just four to six overs, close finishes are a regular feature.

"Earlier the tournaments used to last over two weeks. But now with so many of them to be played they have to be finished within a day," says Gholatkar who, at times, plays as many as three tournaments on the trot. "There are times when I leave my house on Friday night and return only Monday morning," he adds about his hectic schedule.

But tennis ball cricket is not just ordinary street cricket. It is as much difficult as leather-ball cricket, if not more. "Good teams always go into a match after a lot of planning. Only then can you win consistently," says Gholatkar who is a regular for Rahul Cricket Club, which has Vinod Kambli’s younger brother Vidhyadhar among its ranks.

So the next time you want to watch quality cricket live, switch off the TV and roam the nearby maidans and gullies. You just might see some.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE OF TENNIS-BALL CRICKET

The showis run by these self-made `team managers’. While many are in the business to make some extra buck, there are some like Ansar Bhai of Aftab Builders, who sponsors Rahul CC. His only aim is to get a hand on the trophies the team wins.

Aged anywhere between 16 and 40, these mostly consist of normal office-goers who would rather spend their weekends on the field than snooze at home. Some, like Gholatkar, make a living out of it.

Anybody from local businessmen to small-time goons to political party workers, more of whom are getting involved. Film star Mithun Chakravorty is a regular for the annual RK Trophy in Chembur. Recently BJP organised a Rs 50,000 trophy in Malad.

Usually a cricket enthusiast who likes mixing business with pleasure. Publicity done more by word of mouth rather than anything else. Silver Sports, sports goods shop in one of the bylanes of Andheri, boasts of increased demand for its products after helping some well-knownplayers on the circuit.