INTRODUCTION

The 3rd annual Hope For Kids (HFK) Cricket Carnival was held on the 20th of January 2024 at our own grass field at OSC from 1.30 – 6.00pm. Cricket, community and collaboration – the recipe for a brilliant day of fellowship and memories, and I certainly wanted to make the best of the opportunity. Reflecting on our team’s (Poulus’s Pullers) disappointing last place performance in last year’s cricket carnival, and continuing this year’s revitalization of my own Cultural Exchange service group, I set down two goals: win the tournament under my new franchise, Nathaniel’s Nudgers, and raise much needed funds for our beloved children in our service. 

SERVICE 

This year has been one of rapid change for the Cultural Exchange Group (formerly US Peace Corps). With diverse students coming into campus from all around Colombo to share their culture and learn English together, we had to switch gears to much welcomed physical classes and interactions. Our new course, put together in partnership with the Ministry of Education, requires us to conduct a cumulative examination for the students at the end of the course cycle, which runs from September – December, and then finally from February – April. As April nears closer, and we have to wave goodbye to this group of amazing students, we have planned a memorable closing ceremony with individual practical gifts for each student who attended. In order to finance these gifts and other activities, the HFK carnival seemed the obvious event to host a service fundraiser in. 

Our service stall was simple, yet both attractive and practical for those visitors wanting to beat the Colombo heat, with a rejuvenating refreshment, and beat the tiredness, with a sugar rush delight. We sold freshly juiced and hand-made Narang Mojitos, topped with salt, mint leaves and freshly cut lime, and delicate lemon juiced hot crepes to go along with the juice. With the level of competition amongst stalls, we settled for competitive prices of Rs. 200 for the Mojito and Rs. 400 for the crepe, with a combo deal for both at Rs. 500. 

I was in charge of making the Narang juice and preparing the ingredients for it. Let’s just say, the night before the carnival my thumbs were so numb from squeezing hundreds of small Narang fruits to produce 2L of juice! Ms. Martina & Ms. Nathalie was in charge of the crepe station, with periodic help from myself, Malaika and Aran to make the batter. Sales were done predominantly by Malaika and Aran, who did a fantastic job as emerging service leaders – I helped whenever I did not have a scheduled game. 

CRICKET

We got off to a terrible start which brought eerie deja vu from last year’s performance – our opening match resulted in a landslide defeat. After a poor first innings batting performance, we only put up 54 runs on the board for the Hoikers to chase – and they chased it down with 3 overs to spare. 

We were all determined to change our fate in the next games – we had to win the next one versus the Pullers to qualify for the final. Put in to bat first again, we got off to another shaky start with the early loss of Janaka at the crease being given out for an LBW. However, Diego and myself stabilized the innings with a game changing 60 run partnership – with a plethora of 4s and 6s coming off both our bats which powered us to a formidable total of 87 runs in 10 overs. Diego was the star of the show – coming just short of a blistering half century whilst I played my role as an anchor with snippets of lofts here and there. The total was just too much an ask for the Pullers, who came 25 runs short – qualifying us for the Final. 

The Final – we were put to bat first once again. With some blistering innings from Diego and the tailenders, we put up another high score of 85 for the Hoikers to chase. Unfortunately, my innings came to an abrupt end after a poor shot to, quite frankly, a terrible delivery by Mr. Russo. With rain clouds hovering over the OSC oval, we rushed to bowl to determine the winner of the game – completely disowning the thought of a draw. Once again, tight bowling from Diego and Janaka restricted the Hoikers who fell a comfortable 18 runs short of the total – crowing us the champions of the tournament.

ReFLECTIONS

It was a thrilling and lovely day out with the ever-fun OSC community. Our service stall outperformed all our expectations, bringing in Rs. 28,800 and selling out of Narang Mojitos completely. All in all, it was a brilliant day and I’m left with aches and pains knowing that this will be one of the last events I’ll participate in as an OSC student. However, once a gecko, always a gecko – never forget that!