Ludo Cricket

Last week I posted a blog on Book cricket inspired by this blog which is probably the first ever written evidence that book cricket was infact a reality during the end of 20 th century before the advent of Video Games.I was cleaning my room when I got the Ludo-Cricket boards which I prepared nearly ten years back, that pushed Book-Cricket to new levels.The following blog is all about the golden era of Book-Cricket that thrived in the Pinastro illam.

Even after Video Games arrived but was still inaccessible to the middle class society the Book-Cricket was alive and attained new heights until the death blow was given by drastical fall in the prices of electronic goods.

I used to play a very different form of book cricket indigenously developed by Pinasto and his Sister.It had all the elements of Modern day T20 Cricket. Quick Scores , Quick Wickets and Massive Entertainement.The game was basically a cross breed of two timeless masterpieces of Time-Pass games ; LUDO and BOOK-CRICKET.

I named it LUDO Cricket.Me and My sister used to play this Weird Form of Cricket for hours and sometimes days.The plus point was it recreated the same thrill generated out of all the action on the field like , the Commentator’s excited commentary over the huge six that goes out of the park,The crucial Third Umpire decisions,The batsman hit on the Grill, Batsman being Run out by just a few inches from the crease, the sledging wars between the players,Catch being dropped by the fielder in the Slip,No Ball, Wide,Stunning Catch by the Wicket Keeper and almost everything that used to happen during the 1990’s to 2000 in the world of cricket.

A Different Ball-Game

The Ball used in this game was a Cube shaped , Red in color.This Cube shaped ball also known THE DICE which used to haunt many students in the Maths Mani’s , Probability class.

Rules of the game Ludo-Cricket

The Game is played on a board painted with images of action that happens on the ground.There are two batsmen standing on the board at a single time.

The coaches ( real players ) throw the Red Cubical shaped ball(dice).The dice shows a number.The batsmen on the Ludo cricket board move that many squares and ends up in a square.Whatever action is drawn on that particular square is the fate of the batsmen.Whenever a batsman scores a single , the next ball is faced by the other batsman.

Sometimes,when the batsman entered the square that had a small STAR at the corner.If the batsman landed on a starred corner , he is moved to a More Electrifying board that had nothing but Wickets and Boundaries and Sixers.More on the Electrifying board is explained below.

Advantages over other forms of Book-Cricket

All the action that happens in the real cricket can be felt on paper.Who bowled the maiden over, who thrashed the stumps of the batsman,How many dot balls the batsman wasted in the game,how many drop catches by the team,how many run outs by the team and almost everything except the FREE HIT and the CHEER GIRLS.

Disadvantages over the other forms of Book-Cricket

Very difficult to appreciate this game if you are allergic to Mathematics.I loved calculating the run-rates, strike-rate,runs-per-over etc. ofcourse everything was manual calculations.But this disadvantage can be an advantage too, if you seriously wanted to improve your math , as this game is a fun way to learn.

Since, this game was played by only two people in the world , me and my sister, I was the person who always did the calculation part (remember manual calculation)

Efforts taken to Maximise the Entertainment generated from LUDO-Cricket

Apart from the High scoring games there is a special type of Entertainment generated by the low scoring games.For Low scoring games a special board was painted which had most of the squares as DOT BALLS.

Also sometimes the games tend to charged up either due to the Crowd Noise or the Sledging Wars between the Bowler and the Batsman.For this kind of Game a separate board was painted with every square having either Boundary,Six or a Wicket, in which every square is richly illustrated which is called the Electifying Cricket Board.

Indeed Twenty Twenty was invented long back in the form of Book Cricket which was lost in the missing pages of Folklore ,due to the advent of Video Games.

Damsel Cricket; Ladij Kiriket

There is a very interesting fact about the Cricket bowling action with respect to the Bowling Action.

I am not talking about the Noodle Strap dresses of Mandira bedi nor the shaking assets of the Dancing girls of Twenty 20 cricket..I am talking about the very rules of the game were shaped by women playing cricket in the 19th century

..Read On

In the olden days of Cricket the Underarm bowling was Legal and the Overarm bowling was considered NoBall.Even bowling Round-Arm under the shoulder was considered a No-Ball.

It was ladies cricket that changed the way bowling was done.

In Ladies cricket (during the 19th century),women used to play by wearing Skirts which caused a miscomfort while doing underarm bowling.Due to which Round-Arm(under the Shoulder) bowling was legalised for women’s cricket alone.

Must have been THE days of Ladies cricket; Ladies who never used to wear pants and only Skirts 🙂

Legalizing Round-Arm action influenced the Men and they also started using Round-Arm action(but under the shoulder).It was not until 1835 when
players like William Lillywhite made efforts to legalize Round-Arm (but under the shoulder) action in Men’s cricket , round-arm action was still considered No-Ball.

Legalising Round-Arm bowling started to influence some innovative bowlers to raise their arm above the shoulder level to invent new ways of bowling.
It was not until some bowlers became umpires and chairmen of the cricketing boards in the later part of their career when there was a huge support to legalize Over-Arm action.

It was in 1864 , when MCC changed the “Laws of Cricket” and said Under-Arm is No-Ball and Over-Arm is Legal.

Today we have so many types of bowling

Full toss/Beamer Fast bowling Bouncer Indipper Inswinger Leg cutter Off cutter Outswinger Reverse Slower ball Yorker
Spin bowling Arm ball Chinaman Doosra Flipper Googly Leg break Off break Slider Topspinner Teesra

Hence , it started with Ladies cricket from legalizing Round-Arm action that finally led to Legalizing Over-Arm action.
Nobody could have ever imagined Cricketing actions would evolve to such an extent before 1835.