Out of shape

Playing cricket for only the 3rd time I am starting to learn the game. The field is a baseball park sized circle with a 22 yard pitch in the middle, wickets on either side of the pitch, a bowler on one side, a batter on the other. The ball must be pitched in a over hand fashion were the bowlers arm does not break at the elbow and the ball must bounce before reaching the batter. Any ball bowled above the waist, or outside of the box is considered a wide ball. The batter may hit the ball in any direction and is considered out if the ball is caught in the air, the ball hits the wicket, or they are not in the box when a fielder knocks the peg off the wicket. 6 points are earned if the ball is hit our of the park, 4 points if the ball roles untouched to the fence, and a single point for each time the batters switch sides of the pitch. Depending on the style of play the game may last for a few hours, the entire day, or a full month.

Being new to the game, I find myself thinking about ever move I make. Every time the ball is pitched I hesitate, do I swing for the fence or block it? Do I run, or stand still? Today we did not just practice; we actually split into teams and played a real game. Being one of two white guys that had never played the sport before I prepared to be the last kid picked in gym class. To my surprise I was picked 3rd, Matt forth, I think they did it so we would not feel bad as it is definitely not because we are the best players on the field. Being that it was early in the day, 8 am on a Saturday, they announced 6 more practice balls for each and then the game would begin. While up to bat they encouraged me to also practice running between the wickets after I hit the ball. I refused, it was already 85 degrees out, and I need to save the few calories I take in each day. I don’t want to completely waste away.

Playing for the next 3 hours I managed to do plenty of running. Maybe it was my baseball background, almost MLB material, maybe it was because I am finely tuned athletic machine, hard to narrow it down to just one. Wrapping up the game, which my team won, we slowly walked off the dirt field. Interrupting a hindlish conversation, a mix of Hindi and English all in the same sentence, I asked for them to truthfully tell me how I was doing.

Breaking away from the conversation one of my team members just looked at me and laughed, “We were just talking about how you are in much better shape than the rest of us”.
Finely tuned athletic machine.

Blake