Pickup, setup and play

It was hot summer’s day in June when several street children were spotted playing what appeared to be cricket but with the kind of rules unheard of in the cricketing world. This improvised version cricket being played on the streets of Hatirpool is called “pickup, setup and play”;the rules of this cricket game entirely depend on the flow of traffic, hence the name. Amid the rush of daily hustle and bustle of the city these children have found a way to play their favourite game on the streets because Dhaka has an infamous lack of parks and playgrounds. According to a research by Work for a Better Bangladesh (WBB Trust) Dhaka has little open green space per capita by all accounts. There are no parks between 0.052 and 0.5 square metres. The game is played by picking up the stumps during the overs whenever the a car has to come through, giving is it’s unique name. Every street of Dhaka has its own team, each team has its own set of rules and boundaries, which when crossed will get the players out of the game. This new “pickup culture” is the city dwellers improvisation in a city that is rapidly encroaching into green spaces. Playing like this also inhibits children from fully exerting the kind of force needed to play cricket. This constricted movement later impeded on the child’s ability to fully express their skills. One of the children playing in Hatirpool, Saju told the Dhaka Tribune that he was frustrated that there was no parks around him to play in. “I love cricket, but there is nowhere I can actually go and play, so my friends and I decided to make our own game with our own rules and started playing on the streets,” he said. Although Bangladesh ratified the United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), it has failed to successfully implement the required minimum open spaces mentioned in the convention. Article 31(1) of the UNCRC convention of 1989 says all state parties are responsible to ensure children’s right to play and their recreation. In 2000, a law was passed by the parliament of Bangladesh for conserving playgrounds, open spaces, parks and natural water bodies in Dhaka, all divisions and district towns. There are about nine playgrounds under construction in Dhaka South according to Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) website. These nine playgrounds cover an area of just 20.40 acres where there are total 27 parks under DSCSS but most of them are occupied by influential individuals. The Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) has only 15 playgrounds and 29 parks. Both the city corporations have conducted several drives to recover the parks and playground from land grabbers but their attempts have been unsuccessful thus far. Parks are not only illegally occupied but also have been used as garbage dumps by the city corporations as well. A research called “Child’s play and recreation in Dhaka city, Bangladesh” conducted by Afroza Ahmed and Muhammad Sohail, show that the optimum distance between a playground and house—irrespective of age or background—is under 800 m in Dhaka. Child rights activist and Lawyer at Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), Rasheda Akter said: “Sports help the development of the brain in children. Sports also helps build leadership and responsibility. “It is a matter of great regret that our city planners disregard the need for open spaces and parks in their plans for Dhaka’s future. Even schools do not have the adequate space for children play in.” Dr Abdur Razzaque Khan, associate professor of Mass Communication and Journalism at University of Dhaka: “The quality of city life is measured by parks, gardens and open spaces. But large scale infrastructure projects and unscrupulous real estate companies have ruined the city’s quality of life.” This cramped constricted way of life has now become the norm in Dhaka. Children though have adapted to this, such as Alamin in Malibagh. He said: “We just play on the streets. This is all we know. There are not parks near my house and I am not allowed to go so far by myself. “We go at Suhrawardy Udyan when we have matches with other street cricket teams. Other than that the streets are a good place as any to play cricket.”