Cricket on skates rolls into prominence

Kochi: Close on the heels of 'roller basketball' introduced by some enterprising youngsters of Kerala, 'roller cricket' has now taken shape in the state and has produced innumerable sports persons.

"Our success in the roller basketball has given us enough inspiration and confidence for the launch of a new game, roller-cricket, which is gaining wide acceptance among youngsters and school children in Kerala," Jomon Jacob, a coach and chief architect of the game, said.

"The rules of roller cricket are the same as that in cricket. However, the number of players participating in a team has been fixed at seven. Each game will be of 25 overs a side," he said.

Jacob said the game is not costly, as one can get a skater for Rs 400.

Roller cricket could be played both indoors and outdoors, he said.

"If the game is played outdoors, the expected length of the ground is 40x2 metres and the width is 30x2 metres and if it is played indoor, the expected length is 30x2 metres and width is 20x2 metres," he said.

Jacob said batting, bowling and fielding all will be done with the use of roller-skates. The game will be played by using the roller skating brakes like V, T, L, half, sudden and split.

"I am confident that roller cricket would be popular in future as in the case of roller basketball," said Jacob, a physical education teacher.

He said the Roller Cricket Federation of India, with ES Jose as President, was pooling all its efforts to make the game popular in the country.

"The popularity of the game is steadily rising and there are enquiries from various schools for starting camps," he said.

"A roller cricket tournament has also been planned in the state," he added.

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