Cricket mad and a game with the locals

It is no surprise that India is cricket mad, but I have had to stop telling people that I am Australian because we got so much ribbing after the recent one-day series loss to both England and NZ. I have started telling people I am from Cambodia, however my accent is so broad that they rarely believe me. Bring on the World Cup I say!

One day Vivek (the Indian Leader) and I went to the local velodrome where the local men & boys were playing cricket. I created quite a stir, women out playing is virtually unheard of, at least not in the rural areas, they are too busy doing real work like fetching watching and cooking to play games. We were put into separate teams, so I was bombarded with young men asking me questions while I was waiting for my turn to bat, only one guy had decent English, so she had to translate. I was asked things like who is my favourite Indian cricketer, I could only think of 2, so I said Tendulkar. Apparently that is the wrong answer, there is another guy who is the current hero. Then who is my favourite Bollywood star? Like I know any! Then Hollywood star, Orlando Bloom was unacceptable, one guy thought I should have said Tom Cruise! Then the usual, are you married, do you have children (for the record - I am married, no children and Jo is my sister!)

And the game - we were only allowed to hit the ball on the off side and I scored about 18 not out (though Vivek reckons they were going easy on me!) and my one over of bowing nearly lost my team the game! oops!

So a couple of weeks ago I bought a cricket bat, with the plan of leaving it at the farm stay, but they already had one, so I am still dragging it around India. My ball died though. Luckily our Indian leader and some Aussie guys on the trip don't mind a game, so we have had a few hours of fun with it. Hopefully we will come across an orphanage or something so I can leave it to someone who deserves it. Plenty of kids think that by pointing at the bat and saying 'you give me' will encourage me to hand it over to them! Fat chance.