Germans pad up for hockey practice,cricket style

“I love the game,I follow it closely. I have been in Germany for a while now and I was in Holland before this for some years but I still keep track of the Australian team. They are in quite a predicament at the moment,” says the Australian.

Having a laugh

“They don’t really take it too seriously. They laugh,in fact they make a lot of jokes about it on tours because they find me watching cricket all the time and they can’t understand it. They don’t know about any of the superstars of the game anywhere. I tried telling them about Shane Warne and it drew a complete blank,” he says.

In fact,he says,they are unable to come to terms with the fact that a single match can last for five days without a result,or even that a whole day can be spent on the field for a single game. “The small Indian and Pakistani communities in Germany play cricket but otherwise not many know of it. But it’s fun and helps break the routine. They try to play,though you cannot say they are too good. Some of them are,though,let’s see if we can find some cricket potential here,” he smiles.

Perhaps that’s what led to the Germans making full use of their first rest day of the tournament by trying their hand at the game,with proper cricket kits. “Cricket has a lot of training aids and we try to use some of them in hockey,like the bowling machine. But other than that,there isn’t much that we can take. Moreover,the boys are happy playing hockey. Me too,” he signs off.