Net session diaries: the 5 am batch
Before school, before traffic, before the sun clears the trees — the most serious cricket in the city is played to an audience of one coach and a stray dog.
The first sound is the bowling machine being wheeled out; the second is twelve pairs of studs on dew. The 5 am batch exists because pitches are free, air is cool, and school starts at eight — a compromise between ambition and attendance registers.
The coach's method is unglamorous repetition with surgical notes. Each batter faces sixty balls with one instruction — head still, or wait for it — and the same drill continues until the note changes. Parents watch from behind the net, contractually silent.
The economics of academy cricket are a family project: kit handed down between brothers, travel pooled between households, and tournament fees saved for the way other families save for festivals.
At 7.15 the session ends with fielding, the only part conducted at full volume. By 7.40 the nets are empty and the boys are in uniform on buses, carrying the particular satisfaction of people whose day has already had a result.
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