With the current IPL fever going on and it being the only topic of discussion on the lips on my colleagues. I've decided to give the game of Cricket a dekko, now that my University exams are finally over.

While reading few articles on the net, newspaper and other media sources, I came across a piece of news that seemed interesting.

The article claimed that Adolf Hitler played Cricket!

And not only did he attempt at playing Cricket, the fascist dictator tried giving it a Nazi twist.

This story came to play when a British MP, Oliver Locker Lampson who was also a wartime veteran, right-wing zealot and a fervent admirer of Hitler met a couple of British officers who had been Prisoners of War in Southern Germany during the First World War.

Hitler came to them one fine day and asked if he could watch an eleven of cricket at play so as to become initiated into the mysteries of Britain’s national game.

They welcomed him and told him about the rules of the game. The dictator, having learnt the rules to the game assembled his own team, and challenged the British to a “friendly match”.

The story goes on saying that Hitler’s XI presumably lost to the British, even though they don’t really know which team won. The obvious result thus seems like the British won as Hitler immediately declared the game insufficiently violent for German fascists

Hilter, on the other had ulterior motives on learning the game. He wanted to study it as a possible medium for the training of troops off duty and in times of peace. He also wanted the game to be ‘Nazified’.

He however proposed altering the rules of the game for the benefit of the serious minded Teuton.

He specifically advocated the withdrawal of the use of pads which he claimed was un-manly and thus un-German. He also recommended a bigger, harder & heavier ball.

Hitler wrote mein kampf, I believe one of his inspirations came from his defeat to the British in the game of Cricket.