As I mentioned in an earlier article about Softball Cricket, this is a sport that I truly enjoyed as a growing child and even into my teenage years.
Softball Cricket is one of those friendly sports that thrills the very soul. The batsman stands with his feet spread slightly apart, holding a bat and waiting for the bowler to deliver the ball. As a record setting batsman, I can speak firsthand of the absolute joy derived from standing there with the bat and defending your wicket from the bowler’s delivery, be it pace or spins. Then the bowler comes through. Often, the bowler would stand a good distance from the bowling line in order to run forward and gain momentum which would be transferred in the form of kinetic energy to the ball.
The ball flies towards the batsman, who, if he is smart enough, would have his bat raised at the same time the bowler’s hand goes backward. With careful eyes, the batsman must time the pace, drop and bounce of the ball, and also the direction of spin if necessary. Doing a split second mental calculation, the batsman must determine in what direction and in what pace to fire his bat.
The good batsman would connect the ball with his bat and send it flying or bouncing away safely. Safely? Yes, the batsman not only has the task of defending the wicket, but there are parameters that must be adhered to in doing so. For example, he cannot hit the ball too high, least one of the fielders catches it before it touches the ground, and if this happens, then the batsman is “out.” I will write more about the rules of cricket later.
The batsman must also aim to drive the ball as far away as possible in order to score a run or runs. If the batsman misses the ball and it hits the wicket, he is “out.”
Next batsman!
But there is not just thrill in batting. As a young cricketer, I’ve experienced joy in all aspects of the game – from keeping the wicket to fielding offside, there is a thrill in doing your duty in every aspect of this sport.
There is joy of waiting behind the wicket for the batsman to “tip” the ball and catch it so that he is “out,” and the joy of delivering a ball that sends that tumbles the wicket. There is joy in catching a ball that was batted high up into the air, as well as joy in throwing in a ball just in time to “stump out” the batsman. And for the batsman, there is so much joy in defending everything that is done to get him “out.”