For once umpire S Venkatraghavan was stumped: he didn’t have a
cricketing signal to declare the launch of India’s first comic on cricket. 
So he merely held up the copy before a group of children at a store here (Goodbooks Bookstore, Abhiramapuram) and handed it over to Bill Dennis, the producer of the comics.

After fending off bouncers from the kids – questions of every kind on cricket, to be exact – Venkat relaunched the book at a press meet. He said he had agreed to do the launch free of cost for two reasons – "My love for cricket and kids. And here is a product that brought cricket to the kids in the form they love most – cartoons."

India’s first comic book series on cricket, called Pakka Toonz, is all 
about the exploits of "Miracles", an amateur cricket team of Gulabnagar in Mumbai. Managed by Aunty Sweety, who whips up the snazziest of menus 
to keep her boys fit, the team is led by Guru, "a popular rebel who holds his mates together."

Other members of his team are Gray, the in-house cricket encyclopaedia, 
Bull the gentle giant, the highly-strung superfast Shaker, Frog the wicketkeeper and of course Star, short and sharp with curly hair – the 
team’s best batsman in the Sachin Tendulkar mould. Out to spoil it all for the team is Thakral, a wealthy businessman who resents sponsoring the team after losing a bet.

The first episode is all about assembling a team, Aunty’s unorthodox training   methods (tomatoes aimed at a saucepan to sharpen bowling skills) and how the   team pulls off an impossible win against the more professional Breach Candy team. "The kids playing street cricket on our bylanes were our real inspiration. Most of our characters are based on some of their traits and idiosyncrasies with one common thread – their love for cricket", explains Veena Nagiah, Story Editor.

According to Bill Dennis, CEO of Toonz Animation that produces the comic, the characters were all fictitious but he was confident that they would become as popular once the comics became a hit with Indian children. Aimed to fill a gap in the Indian publishing scent, the comic series, published monthly and priced at Rs 50, will soon be printed in Indian languages.

Asked if kids were consulted while designing the comic, Dennis, pointing to his creative team observed: "They’re all kids at heart and they love cricket."

The comic is full of other cricketing stuff like quiz, crosswords and other trivia. "A quotable quote from Jayawant Lele, Indian cricket’s very own 
comic character, would have made the first issue more complete", slyly remarked a wag.