Sports the Olympics Forgot – Bocket

This is an excerpt from the “Bocket” story in my book, Sports the Olympics Forgot

The game of Bocket is played throughout the Indian sub-continent but first started in Dacca in Bangladesh. Bocket is a combination of Bowls and Cricket and allows people in bowling clubs to still play a version of their game after their bowling green has been sold to a high-rise developer.

Bocket is played on a cricket pitch with the stumps and bails in place. There is an Umpire at each end of the pitch and the two teams comprise four members each. The first members of each team bowl their two bowls alternately, then the second members bowl their bowls alternately and so on.

The person who delivers the bowl is known as the bowler and he must deliver the bowl from the popping crease without having the whole of his front foot across the line; if the front foot is wholly across the line the umpire shouts “No Bowl” and the bowl is intercepted on its path by the Third Man, who isn’t an umpire.