Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006

As part of a new project on Indians in Armenia I recently made contact with Nanyaar?, an Indian student and blogger currently living in Yerevan. Last week, when we met for the second time, Nanyaar asked me if I was interested in cricket, but even though I was born in England and only left for Armenia in 1998, my gut response was to say no. Admittedly, I did enjoy playing this typically British game when I was at school, but watching it on TV seems pretty much akin to watching paint dry, in my opinion.

It is doubtful that any Armenian, European or American will understand the game either. Only former colonies that regained their independence in the past 100 years will.

But when Nanyaar said this was a pity as he thought I might be interested in a match being played by Indian students studying at Yerevan’s Medical University, that was something different. The match even coincided with one meant to be played between England and India in Guwahati. Yet, although the stakes were high in Yerevan in games played as part of a tournament with a grand prize of $200, passions were thankfully not as high as they appear to have been in India.

The same day, riot police were called in to disperse an angry crowd after the England-India match being called off.

The 20,000 sell-out crowd had waited for several hours without seeing a single ball bowled when the decision to call the game off was taken.

Some battled with the police and threw bricks onto the outfield, prompting police to fire tear gas into the crowd and at least 12 were injured.

[…]

Riot police were eventually called in after three officers had been hurt by flying bricks.

Anyway, things were a lot more peaceful in Yerevan although an Indian party planned for later in the evening was apparently postponed until later in the month, which was a pity considering I was looking forward to some Bhangra. Although I like rock and jazz more than dance music, if there’s one thing that can get more tedious than living in a predominently mono-ethnic country, it’s Armenian pop music.

So, I’m looking forward to that party when it eventually materializes, and will continue to update readers on my Indians in Armenia project in the meantime.

Meanwhile, I hear that Headache, an Armenian from here who is in India on work for two months, visited the Taj Mahal today. I’m jealous. Must be gorgeous, and I hope she’ll post about it soon. Interestingly, Jeffrey Tufenkian, President of the Armenian Forests NGO, was in India recently as well and has sent me some photos to post alongside Headaches posts from India in the future. Watch this space.

To end on the theme of the environment, however, what did strike me when watching these guys play cricket with a tennis ball because the only area they could find was concrete was that Yerevan doesn’t appear to have any open green spaces left for children or young adults to relax in or play sports on in their spare time. None at all. A tragedy that future generations will suffer from.

Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Hetq Online 2006