Cane Ball Festival at Maha Muni Pagoda, Mandalay.

I’ve never been much interested in sport as my children can attest, but watching men playing cane ball on the outskirts of rural villages is pleasant even for me. But I was surprised that I got excited watching the Cane Ball Festival, also known as the Wicker Ball Ceremony, at the Maha Muni Pagoda in Mandalay.

The game is not, as I originally thought, two teams playing against each other as in football. This it is more like a display featuring incredible movements, postures and acrobatics that players can achieve.

Unlike village venues, the Maha Muni Pagoda has a raised, circular covered arena and an orchestra. This heightens the excitement: the more the ball is tossed, the louder the orchestra plays.  So it’s not easy to ask Win Kyaing the finer points of the game. However, in the breathless intervals of silence when one team gives way to another, he tells me that the object of playing cane ball is to keep the ball in the air by any means other than by using hands. The players are adept at rolling the ball down their arms, back or stomach, of catching it in the nape of their neck then shaking it free and passing it on.  He tells me that most teams have six players. Why then, I wondered, had one man a large No. 7 written on the back of his shirt? “Oh that’s probably his lucky number” came the reply!

Today 30 teams will be competing between 9.00 a.m. and 12.00 p.m. and each team has thirty minutes of play. Before the Festival became so popular, it lasted just a few days, now it lasts two months.

Away to one side of the arena is a commentator competing with the orchestra for decibels. Behind a fence, the judges sit stern-faceed, eyes on the players throughout.

The pace is fast and furious with players hurling themselves toward the ball. The men look between 25 and 35 years old. A surprise is to see a player who looks 60+ with as much vim and vigour as the younger men. Oh, this is different, a young woman has just run into the arena and pinned a 5,000 Kyat note to the back of his shirt. Another girl runs on and pins a 1,000 Kyat note on another man. Finally, a man runs on and pins another 5,000 Kyat on the old guy’s shirt. He doesn’t seem to be better than any other player – maybe it’s an old age thing.

We are here during the first week of the Festival. As the weeks pass ever better teams will compete. Maybe we will be back in Mandalay near the end of the Festival and it will be interesting for me to see players at the top of their form. I wonder what notes will be pinned on them.