Indoor cricket is a variant of cricket that is played with either six or eight players in a side. While this form of the game is not as popular in a lot of cricket-playing nations, it has a huge following Down Under.
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Over the years, a number of players from Australia and New Zealand have played Indoor Cricket for their respective countries. While former Kiwi opener Jesse Ryder played for New Zealand in the Indoor World Cup in 2017, the likes of Mitchell Johnson, Jhye Richardson, Andrew Tye, and Michael Clarke have all been involved in the sport as well.
Back in 1984, when the mighty West Indians toured Australia, the visitors were coaxed into an indoor game against Western Australia Indoor Cricket XI. Players such as Clive Lloyd, Joel Garner, Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall along with Vivian Richards took the field in an exhibition game but were stunned as they eventually lost by a run.
The game demands the faster bowlers to shed some pace as their run-ups are shortened to a few paces. Tye, who has represented Australia, reveals how playing indoor cricket forced him to perfect the back-of-the-hand slower ball. Johnson, without his fiery pace in the sport, almost bowled like a medium pacer and scalped 7 for 35 in a game.
The Waugh brothers too were part of an Indoor Cricket match way back in 1984 as 18-year-olds where they turned out for Cricket New South Wales. In a game during the Indoor Nationals, Steve Waugh, commonly called “Schooners”, opened the batting with Mark Smith. Playing a few weeks after scoring 187 runs for the under 19 Australian team Australia against Sri Lanka, Steve impressed with his quick reflexes before he was joined by his brother Mark, known as “Eddie”, at the crease.
Mark later inflicted a run-out with a brilliant piece of keeping, sending Steve into a wild celebration.
