Israel's mighty swing

They say that to be a realist in Israel, you need to believe in miracles. It is a miracle that the Arabs and Jews, putting behind all political differences, came together to form Israel’s national football team. And the survival of the gentleman’s game in this Holy land is also a mighty miracle. Documents state that cricket was started by the British in Jerusalem, Haifa and the Tel-Hashomer army camp as a pleasure sport but the reality has a different face. The sport was brought to the country primarily by the Abrahams of Bombay, who also went on to become the doyens of the game in the country. A living example of Indians playing cricket in Israel is Bensiyon Songavkar, who plays for Saurashtra in the domestic circuit and also in Israel’s twenty over league. It was the Jewish immigrants from India in the 60s who really established the sport in Israel’s sports directory. The Indian Jews introduced cricket in the desert towns of Negev and Tel Aviv as a medium to shake up the dull and mundane everyday life. With passing years, the indigenous youth developed interest and consequently the ability to compete at the international level.

The people of Israel are known to be tenacious and determined and why not, if they could transform a desert into a thriving economy. Cricket, today, has not just created its own place among the Israeli youth, but also enabled them to dream of a prosperous life beyond the contours of the barbed wires and bomb shells. Today, not only a Songavkar from India goes to the desert nation to play bat & ball, but even lads from Israel goes overseas to play in the county circuit. The history of cricket in Israel is unlike other associate nations of the ICC; cricket in this devastated land is not the modern man’s pastime sport, but a sport that has grown its roots in the Israeli culture not over the last decade, but the last century. Toured first by Bournemouth Cricket Club in 1968, Israel has hosted cricketing giants like Australia and South Africa and have themselves toured England and Ireland among other countries. In 2003, Israel was adjudged the winner of the inaugural ICC Community Development award. Organizations like MCC and Cricket For Change have also taken up wise initiatives to teach cricket to innocent children whose minds are still void of communal and political differences. Concrete tennis courts turn into cricket pitches by the evening as the tennis balls get taped and hit by plastic bats for not aces, but sixes.

“Football will not catch on here. It is like borrowed clothes that do not fit. For a foreign custom to establish itself in another country it must be in harmony with the people’s way of life, and we already have the corn straw ball game, “says Graciliano Ramos, during the introduction of football in Sau Paolo. But football not only went on to be accepted in Brazil, it went way beyond that. Unlike football for Brazil, cricket hasn’t enabled Israel to rule the world, but it has enabled them to run, shout and jump in joy, not fear.