Roll Reversal

Roller Derby Precedes The Cricket Season

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

This picture was shot early one morning and shows one of the archetypal Calcutta rituals. Just prior to the cricket season, the pitches and grounds are given the heavy-roller treatment. These four groundsmen, employees of the Eastern Railway Sports Association, were pulling the ancient roller across the emerald-green field and I stood and watched as they pulled it a distance of maybe two hundred metres, right to the southern perimeter. I shot one or two frames as they did so, marvelling at the soft light, the slight haze and the early humidity that reminded me of my own cricket experiences in the city. I was about to move on when I watched the men swap the handle around, in order to reverse the roller in the opposite direction. It immediately struck me that there was - perhaps - a slight similarity to the famous photograph and bronze statue of the US Marines raising the flag on Iwo Jima. If only the other two groundsmen had helped, rather than standing by without lifting a finger - maybe that would have been a real parallel.