Sunday, May 16, 2010

Cricket in Oulu takes a new turn

Yesterday we had a cricket tournament for local Oulu cricket lovers. For the first time we used the matting so kindly provided by Asheesh Kumar of Medipolis GMP.

There was a small problem of carting this large matting roll around and also fixing it to the ground. The use of the hammer was necessary on several occasions to keep the bowlers end firmly fixed down. Also some small adjustments will also be required to have the sides not curl up.

Three teams took part in the 10 over format. The teams were married, bachelors and University student players. The games were thrilling.

From New Album 16/05/2010 06:40
Venkat Reddy bowls while Rajesh backs up.


In the end the Bachelors walked away with a victory over the married players.

The official training session and season will start shortly. This was a good forerunner to what we can expect in the coming summer months. Some discipline as bowling less wides and no balls, etc. will have to be the outcome of the training sessions if the Oulu XI is going to make it big in Finnish National Cricket tournaments.

After the matches, we all adjourned to India House where we broke up into smaller groups, some playing carroms (on the only carrom board in Finland), others enjoying their new experience of cycling in Finland, some playing cricket, some playing shuttle, and a lot of people just gettng to know each other.

India House was in its element as we had over 40 Findians, men, women and children having a wonderful time. We ordered pizzas, kebabs and salads from Oulu's best and largest pizzeria, Goreme (owned by keen sportsmen Hasim and Kasim from Turkey) and everyone enjoyed sitting in the sunshine of 8 pm and just being friends. A few newcomers arrived to take part and generally the whole day was a rip roaring success.

Kudos to the organisers and hope we have several more just fun days this summer.

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