Diti Dakar: A Traditional Game Of Sindh

Every nation and tribe is known for its cultural peculiarities, they might be a dress code or food, traditions, entertainment, lifestyle and even games, whether mental or physical games. Such as cricket is a game, which now most commonwealth nations play but it has its peculiarity in England, or baseball is an American game, though nations and tribes are influenced by other cultures and traditions, same is the case with sports certain sports and games have become worldwide phenomena. 

Yet, there are many games that are peculiar to certain cultures and parts of the world, likewise there are certain games that are peculiar to the sub-continent. And when we speak about Sindh, it has a vast history that spreads over seven thousand years, among many other things there are certain games, whose origins could be traced back in the land of Sindh.

For example Wanjh Wati, Ditti Dakar or Nauturn are some of those games which are commonly found in the land of Sindh, among others the famous of them all is Ditti Dakar, it is commonly known as a countryside game, and it is an important part of life young people living in villages of Sindh. Ditti Dakar is to be found in every part of Sindh, however, this game is not recognized at state or provincial level as sports, and even today it is just played for entertainment purpose in the countryside, while the players don't get any professional training of this game.

                    Historic Background:

Though there is no certain date that when or how this game started, but according to assumptions of different people the game is some five hundred years old and its traces in Sindh could be found in Last years of Samma Rule or early years of Kalhora Rule in Sindh. However, some references of this game are to be found in Indian movies like Aamir Khan starer 2001 movie "Lagaan". When Captain Russell's sister Elizabeth asks Bhuvan and other villagers whether they know anything about cricket. Bhuvan replies: "Yes, it's just like our gilli danda (Ditti Dakar), hit the gili (ditti) with danda (dakar)."

                        Rules of the Game:

Diti Dakar is an outdoor game and is played in an open muddy ground, it could either be played between two individuals or two teams. There approximately eight to nine players in each team without any replacement. There are two important components of the game the pitching and the catching, one team pitches while other team catches the ditti. The catching team spreads into the field in different directions trying to catch the diti or hit the diti as soon as possible, the catching team has to get rid off all the nine players as soon as possible.

                Ways to Get Out:

Commonly there are three ways when a player is declared out in diti dakar:

(i) If someone catches the diti in air, 
(ii) If someone hits the dakar from a fair distance, and
(iii) Missing the diti three times in row.

The game starts with a toss nowadays, but in older days the opposing captain willing offered other team to go in for pitching, or the pitching and catching first was decided by mutual consent of both captains. After that players of catching team spread in the field.

At the start diti is placed on a small V-shape in the ground called gil and one player of pitching team at time tries to through the diti as far as he could with the help of dakar, the opposing team tries to catch it, but if the diti is not caught, the dakar is placed on gil (V-shape) and the catching team tries to hit the diti from its position no matter how far it is from the gil on the dakar, if the diti hits the dakar, the player is considered out, but if it misses the dakar, the player would get the chance to hit diti, but this time the diti won't be placed on gil (V-shape) but where it has fallen after the throw. Now the same player who is pitching has chance to hit the diti with dakar, he tries to lift the diti in air with help of dakar but hitting its sharp edges and once it is in the air he tries to hit it as hard as he could, but if he misses it, he would get another chance, and if he fails to hit the diti on third time he would be declared out and this goes on till all players have their turn.

(A match of Diti Dakar in progress at Jamshoro, Sindh)
             How to Declare Winner:

There is no time limit or points in diti dakar, and the winner is decided if the catching teams captain withdraws from catching any further no matter how many players remain, once he announces to end the game the pitching team wins the game. Remember only the pitching team could win the game by not getting out for a longer period of time and the opposing team's captain has to call for withdrawal, otherwise the game could go on without any time limit.

             Tools Used in the Game:

(A Traditional Diti: An Oval Wooden piece)

Diti: Diti is a small piece of wood with two sharp ends, it is approximately four to five inches in size and is considered most important tool of the game, it is smooth and its skin is peeled off by an ax or a knife.

Dakar: Dakar is also a smooth wooden stick, though there is no fixed size of dakar but its just bigger than the human arm. There are two types of dakar used commonly, a thin dakar and a thick dakar. Thin dakar is used to throw the diti in air from gil (V-shape), while thick dakar is used for hitting the diti.

(A Dakar: wooden stick to hit Ditti)

  At local level even tournaments of diti dakar are organized in different parts of Sindh, but the game is not officially recognized.