3 Ginger Snaps

Sri Lanka is a culturally, geographically and culinarily diverse… and when it comes to recreation, cricket reigns above all. During our time here I have seen kids of all ages playing pick up games of cricket all over the place: parking lots, school fields, patches of beach, and in the middle of the road – and with all manner of improvised bats as well. Cricket is part of the psyche here. So I’ve been trying to get to a match. Any match. And that is what we accomplished today. 

Through a somewhat patched together conversation with Gomagain, our tuk tuk driver from yesterday, I learned that there was a very important match taking place today at a nearby stadium. High school quarter finals. Perfect. That will be awesome. I can take the kids out in the morning to see the match, Hil can have some headspace on Mother’s Day. 
We arrived at the stadium in nearby Dambula. It’s pretty quiet. Doesn’t look to be a very important match from where I sit in the Tuk Tuk. No sweat. I’m just interested in a match of some form. So how about the doctor’s team from the hospital in Dambulla (a large city of about 500,000 people) versus the doctor’s team from the hospital in nearby Kandy. In the stands at the international stadium that must have had a capacity of at least 10,000 seats it was me, the Snaps, and the brother of one of the docs from one of the teams. He patiently explained overs and wickets and LBWs and bowlers and power plays and scoring to me. It’s a fascinating game with all kinds of skills. Very athletic. I’m looking for more when we get to Columbo!