Weird Gully Cricket Rules :

Cricket is regarded as a religion in India and this religion is adopted in each and every part of this country. While Cricket is at the heart of every Indian, Gully Cricket is the love of all aspiring players.

Gully Cricket doesn’t comprise of two perfect teams of equal count. Junior players (kacha nimboo) can be traded and any one player can be opted as Inter (bich ka bichoo), who gets to play on behalf of both the teams. Sometimes the matches are played between the players of the same building/ area/ locality and sometimes against players of different building/area/locality. The players who used to fight among themselves get together to compete against some another team. Each player understands their role and responsibility in the team and are always ready to sacrifice for their teammates.

The Gully Cricket Rules varied from our Grandfather, father and to us. From cheating to winning to playing to impress, we all grew up. However there are no written rules for it and it varies from locality to locality, but the weirdness remains the same.

1) Opening Batsman:
The game is dominated by the guy who owns a bat and a ball. There’s nothing like opening batsman, “Mera bat he isliye me pehle batting karunga.” And if he is out, he has the right to call it an illegal delivery or a fast delivery or a trial ball, just to get another chance or he can take away his stuff. Every team has a fixed player who will open the batting line up and someone will bowl the very first over.

2) The Ball Rules:
a. All over the years we have seen that cricket is a batsman dominated game. But here, the batsman has to pay for his shot. If he hits in the “gutter”, he has to get it out. And if he loses the ball, he has to get a new one IMMEDIATELY.
b. First ball of a new Inning is always a trial ball. If the baller gets a wicket on the first ball, then the batsman uses this trump card to get another chance.

3) The One Hand Rule:
The batsman is given out if the fielder catches the ball after one bounce, but with one hand. There are further notable instructions which should be followed by the fielder i.e. the action should be completed with only one hand without support of body and the other hand. If not, the batsman is declared as not out.

4) Two bounce of ball ahead of stump is regarded as no ball:
a. This rule is not so common and most of them don’t follow it. The bowler has to bowl a one bounce ball to call it a legal delivery. If the ball reaches with two bounces to the batsman, it is declared a no ball.
b. If the batsman comes forward and the bowler alters his length to avoid a full toss delivery and if it is no ball then the batsman gets an unfair advantage in this situation. And it needs to be changed.

5) The Mini-Over:
The tenure of an over can be reduced to 3 balls if a bowler is not bowling a good over or can give it to some junior player (kacha nimboo). If the match goes to final over i.e. deciding over, two good bowlers of the team can bowl mini over to get a victory.

6) The Toss:
The toss is only performed to decide which team will bat first. There is no provision of a team bowling first after winning toss. The players are ready with bat to seal their position of batting if their team wins the toss. And the winning team gets an opportunity of batting first in the next match.

7) Batsman should not cover the stump:
The stump should be clearly visible to the bowler or the bowler can bowl a fast bowl with full authority. As there is no LBW rule in gully cricket, this rule has been imposed. In this rule, the bowler holds his pride and does not give more than two warnings.

Over the years, many of us have played cricket whenever we had time. Oops! We had time allotted for cricket. We didn’t care about injury or any other responsibilities. We just played the game. We played without any stress or pressure and gave more than 100% for that particular time period. Therefore, Cricket is not just a game, it’s an emotion which each and every child born in this country gets as god’s gift.

“Cricket is the only sport in the world where you are absolutely horrible at something and you still need to go out and do it “

Source : Personal Experience