Cricket Tokelau ........150 a side !
SPORTS ISSUE
Cricket Tokelau style is a much-loved institution on these three tiny
coral atolls in the South Pacific.
It's a game that involves the whole community, and is played for fun
rather than competition, in much the same way as Samoan cricket is
played.
The four Tokelau stamps being released by the New Zealand Post
Office on November 7, feature Cricket and Rugby. The latter is a
sport with growing popularity among the younger generation
Tokelauans.
This is the fourth consecutive issue designed by Faraimo Paulo, of
Atafu, Tokelau, and continues the sports theme begun last year with
stamps featuring canoe racing.
Of the two stamps featuring cricket, the I5c. shows bowling and the
30c. batting.
The 30c. stamp depicts a men's team playing cricket with the
distinctively shaped and decorated bat, made from kanava wood.
Women sometimes form their own teams.
Most days there is a game on at the cricket pitch after work. But on
Christmas day and on holidays, whole villages play, men and women,
so that 150-a-side is not uncommon, and play can extend over several
days.
In Tokelauan cricket, the first team to bat stays "in" until all its
players have had a turn, with the aim of
achieving an unbeatable number of runs.
Defending the wicket is thus less important than in conventional
cricket, and players tend to develop an exuberant style, with mighty
swings which can send the rubber ball anything up to half a mile
away. Only the women are allowed to bowl. The players bat just
once, and the bowlers bowl from alternate ends.
The second team to bat can win as soon as it exceeds the first team's
runs, which may be before the whole team has batted; so then another
game may be started.
Instead of the conventional hard cricket ball, soft rubber balls are
imported from Samoa, though sometimes when rubber balls are" not
available, wooden balls carved from Taiuli or Puapua timber are
used.
Posted 05/23/2017 10:54 pm
