Gully Cricket

In the present world when everything has developed,cricket too followed the trail. It has metamorphosed, adopted many new forms but 'gully cricket' always remains a hit amongst the youth. 

Even if cricket progressed to become a systematically organised game, still somewhere the real roots of the game lie in gully cricket. Almost all well established cricketers have visited these lanes in their life. History is witness to this fact that the real cricketers are born in the ‘gullies’.

Gully cricket is all about virtual wickets, rubber balls, light bats, flexible overs and limited space. But due to factors like urbanisation and infrastructure expansion, gully cricket, which was synonymous to small cities like Jammu has taken a back seat. 

The lovely rejuvenating game is slowly loosing its worth in the fast-paced world.

While talking to a few cricket enthusiast, I tried to find out the reasons behind the downward trend in the sport. Though people claim cricket as their passion, but blame time and pressure from work as the roadblocks. For students, there is immense pressure from parents and competition in the peer group. They have less time. Due to unavailability of space and save time and energy, they have switched to online gaming.A college student feels that parents non-supportive attitude is also a hindrance for youngsters to indulge in gully cricket. Parents usually brand it as waste of time.

Due to such factors, the followers of the game have commenced a downhill journey. According to me, gully cricket is also part of our heritage. We should balance it in our daily schedule.