In the Caribbean and Guyana, this is our game, Cricket! Played by more countries than baseball, but less recognised by the “west”, the only thing played more and enjoyed by more around the world is probably football, NO, not that thing played by Americans, where they hardly use their feet except to run (with amazing speed actually), I’m referring to the real football, also called Soccer worldwide.
In cricket there’s variations of the game,there’s the one called Test Cricket, where everything is tested from the players endurance to the spectators’ patience over several days, usually five but it could be seven, then there’s the One-day Cricket, or standard 50-over matches, the World Cup for which is actually being played now. The newest forms of the game have been Twenty 20, or a twenty over form of the game, shorter and more exciting, and adopted by the governing cricket body, the ICC, as a new standard form, and here in Guyana, we have the yearly 10/10 games now sponsored by local telecommunications company GT&T. But those are the structured forms, as children growing up, other than the usual school-yard cricket we knew of three types of cricket, Cricket-in-the-street, Cricket-in-the-rain and the one that none of us could play but loved through the Dave Martins and the Tradewinds song, Cricket-in-the-Jungle!
As much as I’d love to catch a photograph of Monkey batting, the Elephant bowling, the umpire Parrot and the rest, I have to settle for the ones I can find, and I was fortunate to recently see a group of youngsters playing Cricket in the Street, in the Rain! Can’t beat that combination! I would have gone down to get closer photographs, but two things held me back, the camera isn’t weather-sealer and I hadn’t walked with the zip-lock bag as suggested by others, and if they saw me taking photos, it would lose some of the natural feel to it.
As always, click on the photo to see it on the site larger!
The Michael Lam Collection's Blog 
Most excellent post, an interesting story and a great scene. Nice to have something interesting to see when I got home this evening.
Thanks Nik, this one just flowed 🙂
You were really checking out the girls – tight clothes and all… Just admit it…
Well, it didn’t hurt that there were girls, in t-shirts… wet t-shirts. 🙂
Love this shot!
I can’t imagine a 10/10 cricket game, it must be very short. But then, I have difficulty wrapping my head around 20/20 too.
Thanks JP, I really must attend one of the upcoming 10/10 to see what its like 🙂
I will always love cricket. Playing and watching it. This pic reminds me of our days of playing cricket in the neighborhood.
Thanks David, that’s the thing, anyone who grew up in a rural or semi-rural setting and played cricket should identify with this image 🙂
That’s the kind of shot that I would love to see. Is that a coincidence that you had shot this with the World Cup Cricket going on 😉
Thanks Sasi, yes, quite a coincidence 🙂 But maybe not, every time there is “cricket in the air” the kids play more of it 🙂
This scene was perfect for black and white! Believe it or not, where I live in the Houston, Texas, area, cricket is played on our soccer fields (Sunday pickup games). We have a large Indian-Pakastani group of residents who still want to be reminded of home.
Thanks Susan, actually a Texan millionaire (or so he purported), Alan Stanford, was very instrumental in pushing 20/20 cricket in the Caribbean, at least up until he was caught in an alleged ponzi scheme and arrested.
Wonderful image Mike. It reminded me of growing up in rural Canada playing street hockey all year round in any weather! Now mind you, we didn’t have any wet t-shirts in the dead of winter….. 😛
I think you are absolutely right in thinking that had you gone down to snap a few shots the atmosphere would have changed.
Thanks David, once an image can stir memories than its doing a good job.