A truly historic and memorable event at the Mao Zedong stadium
Mae Zedong stadium, Stone Town, Zanzibar, 2/11/2022
Strongroom won by 8 wickets
Zanzibar: 177-4
Strongroom: 180-2
View the Scorecard
An artificial football pitch on Zanzibar, under lights, in a stadium complex named after Chairman Mao? OK, let’s play cricket.
First, we need to roll out the carpet wicket across the centre circle. The Zanzibar cricketers are keen to get our guidance on this. It’s the first time they have graced the Mao Zedong Stadium too. We eventually decide on positioning it at an angle so the dimensions of the football pitch would be as ‘round’ as possible. This means a very short leg side boundary and an enormous hitting range straight. Oh and we’re also only bowling from one end because that’s how the mat works. Play!
Dave Proctor loses the toss and we’re fielding first. The ball is sitting up in the carpet wicket, begging to be hit. And that’s what happens. Initially, the Zanzibar team don’t seem to be up to much, but once their opener gets going – via a few reprieves from our very shaky fielding (blame the lights?) – he starts pummelling all our bowlers everywhere. All with the same shot: an agricultural heave.
The experience of fielding here is trancelike. What sounds like an air raid siren blares continually for the first two overs, then the call to prayer cries out across the ground. The sun sets, the floodlights take over. There are no breaks between overs because we are not changing ends. We just keep bowling. The ball keeps flying around. Am I fielding in the right place? The boundary is a rectangle. What does this all mean?
The scorer seems exist on another plane too. Has he ever done this before? Are the runs being counted as they should? Richard Boote is here. He’s moved himself next to the scorer, supervising every ball. We have thirteen players so our fielders are revolving off and on every two overs. It’s cricket. Yes, it is still cricket.
Zanzibar score 177-4 from 20 overs. Will anyone remember how? Probably not, but we have a target. There is some certainty amidst the chaos. Not for long.
At the interval, Dave spots Ujjal and sends him in as a pinch hitter. Attack the danger. He lasts three balls. Then it’s Ben joining Ankit. He crunches two fours and we are off in pursuit. Ankit top edges one over the tiny square boundary. More fours, wides, singles. Ben top edges one over the tiny square boundary. We are ahead of the rate and maybe this is possible. Then Ankit is gone – lbw for 36. Cracking start though.
In comes Vinay wearing his crisp new West Indies white shirt. Rebuild, rebuild, and oh my! Vinay’s only gone and Sir Vivianed one over cow corner, all timing and snap. Ping! Is this chase on again?
There is hustle, there are boundaries. The bowlers keep changing, coming in relentlessly from the one end. Chances are dropped, Ben and Vinay are still batting, we’re on target, and then…
A full toss, on the legs. Ben gets down low and picks it up. It comes right out the middle of the bat and soars high into the night sky, high over the short boundary, high over the concrete grandstand. It’s arc goes up and up and it flies effortlessly and forever out of the stadium. As it hangs in the air, there is peace. This is cricket. It is still cricket. And we are going to win.
What follows is clinical. We take down one of Zanzibar’s weaker bowlers for 25 in an over to bring the target down to almost nothing. Knock the ball around for singles, take the odd boundary, batting in the zone. Vinay hits the winning runs. He scores 42 not out. Ben is man of the match, not out on 88. Strongroom win by eight wickets, scoring 180-2 in 16 overs.
But, dear reader, that is not all. After the game, the Zanzibar Broadcasting Company arrives for a round of TV interviews. We are presented with a trophy, already engraved with a sticker for ‘Strogroom CC’. Dave, Richard and Ben give interviews to ZBC. We are the first touring side to visit Zanzibar since the revolution in the 1960s that caused Freddy Mercury (Farrokh Bulsara) and his family to leave the island of his birth. We are part of a little bit of history.
As we gather our belongings and attempt to process the fever dream we have just shared, six Zanzibar players carry the rolled up mat wicket off the pitch like pallbearers. But this is not the death of cricket here, it is only the very beginning. The show must go on, but today, we are the champions.
In the image below we see captain David Proctor giving an impromptu post-match interview to Zanzibar evening news.
Written By: B.Hartridge
|