Let's play Quidditch!

There are fans. And then, there are Harry Potter fans. The legendary dedication of Harry Potter fans is something that has made its way into popular culture: stories of thousands standing outside bookstores at midnight, heated debates about characters and theories about the plot, every movie release being treated as a huge festival of sorts. It is this dedication that has given the Harry Potter fandom its many video games, thousands of fan fiction, recently a Harry Potter Theme Park and more importantly, their own real sport.

Yes indeed. I've not heard of any other fictional game being adapted and played in real life, but Quidditch is a real sport, hugely popular in Colleges especially in the U.S. But how exactly can muggles play a game where players fly on broomsticks and try capturing a flying golden snitch? That's where Alexander Manshel comes in. The first 'Quidditch Commissioner', Manshel adapted the rules for Quidditch from the books in 2005, making them more Muggle-friendly.

 A game of Muggle Quidditch in progress. Source

What began as an inter-mural league at Middlebury College became an inter-collegiate event organised first by the Inter-collegiate Quidditch Association founded by Alex Benepe in 2007, which is now the International Quidditch Association (IQA). Muggle Quidditch is growing in its international stature, boasting of teams from as many countries as the U.S, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, India (One is being formed in New College, Chennai apparently. Did you know?), South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. 

The rules of the game are briefly thus: there are seven players per team and the quaffle is actually a volleyball. There is no flying golden snitch; instead, the snitch is a player, a fast runner with a tennis ball in a sock that has to be caught by the seeker of either team. The hoops are present for the quaffle to be thrown into, while beaters hit players of the opposing team with a dodgeball that serves as a bludger. And yes, players run around with a broomstick. The IQA has a detailed Quidditch rulebook which talks of everything from referees to overtime to fouls and misconduct.

If you thought this was a sport that just a couple of Harry Potter nerds amused themselves with, you'd be mistaken. The two-day Quidditch World Cup 2010 in New York featured 757 athletes from 46 teams, cheered eagerly by 20000 spectators and covered by 40 media outlets.

Watching one of the videos (this is one of the good ones) of a Muggle Quidditch game in progress, you might chuckle about the craziness of it all or snort about the bizarre image of people running around with broomsticks. But this apparently is no joke of a game. Muggle Quidditch is pretty serious and like its wizarding counterpart, comes with its own set of gruelling injuries. 

The Gryffindor Quidditch team flies to glory

If sport is all about passion, excitement and fun that brings people together, Muggle Quidditch is a perfect endorsement of sport. To sum it up, all I can say is: Oliver Wood would have definitely approved.

Recommended Reading:

10 Reasons Why the Quidditch World Cup is the Best College Sporting Event

Forget the Movie...try Quidditch

Cricket, American-style!

Stars, Stripes and Stumps makes not only for a catchy title but truly summarizes what the blog is all about. Remember the time one of your several cousins/relatives settled in the U.S lamented about the thing they missed the most, only next to Indian food? (Gully cricket, if you can't guess)

If, as Barack Obama says, the India - U.S partnership is to be the 'defining partnership' of the 21st century, I can't see it happening without cricket playing a role. No, seriously. It might be a good idea to keep track of what is happening in the U.S cricket arena (there is such a thing) with the help of this blog.

'Chuckworthy' and Samarth Shah are the two Indian contributors to this blog, while Peter Della Penna is an Italian-American who plays club cricket and has to clarify that 'he honestly is not from, or related to anyone from, Australia, England, New Zealand or South Africa.'

Now you sort of get an idea of what to expect. The three contributors write with great humour and wit as they give us a peek into the several cricket clubs in the U.S, the Indian diaspora that is part of it, the American attitude towards cricket and so on. Sample this excerpt from Peter Della Penna's post Batting for Baseball:

Cricket fan: No, cricket is the best!

Baseball fan: Actually, baseball is. The New York Yankees have won the World Series 27 times and they’re the most recognizable sports franchise brand in the world.

Cricket fan: No, cricket is! Because Sachin Tendulkar plays cricket and he is God!

Baseball fan: Well then how come I’ve never seen him anywhere on television?

Cricket fan: Um… er… because all TV networks in America are run by atheists!

This is a young blog that began only in October this year and is markedly different from many other cricket blogs because of the geographical area it deals with. Going by the quality of the posts and the enjoyable style they are written in, it is worth keeping an eye on the chronicles of the world's oldest democracy embracing a sport that the people of the world's largest democracy have been in love with.