The period either side of Easter in Thailand is a time of uncommon revelry, celebrated in a manner remarkably consistent with the spirit of this festival, one of the holiest in the Christian calendar.
Australian legend Dennis Lillee, back third right, poses with the members of the Chiang Mai Sixes in 1994.
The revelry, however, is far removed from religion or anything even near to it instead celebrated on green tops and beaches under clear and friendly skies. It is a time of great anticipation, when the thwack of the willow on the leather is most distinct and the air is flush with that unmistakable ring: it is cricket's season in the sun.
Cricket season in Thailand? In a country where cricket is not the preferred choice of sport, this is easily the single longest spell of sustained cricket action you will witness, nourished in good measure by the presence of foreign cricketers who join expatriate part-timers to play the game with a purpose, consistency and intensity that belies its lowly status.
Cricket doesn't seem a minority sport while the action is in progress, nor as colossal an irrelevance as those uninitiated to the game perceive it to be.
As so happens a cavalcade of spring rolls out every year around Easter starting at the Royal Bangkok Sports Club (RBSC), and from there moves on to Chiang Mai, Hua Hin, Phuket and Pattaya, the other major ports of call on this journey in what has become an annual rite of passage known as Cricket Sixes. It hits a peak around Songkran festival mid-April, but sometimes well after, making this stretch of year the busiest in the local cricket calendar.
For nearly three decades, starting with the first Cricket Sixes in 1984 at the RBSC, cricketers have descended on Thailand to play the game and regale in a spirit of camaraderie on the field and beyond.
This brand of six-a-side five-over cricket is full of merriment though the purists will abhor the format, because it has no place in the cricket manual.
Why the Sixes click is simple: age and skill, or lack of it, is no handicap as long as it is pursued in the right spirit.
Your typical cricketer is an overweight stumblebum roped in from the beach or that friend of a friend who turns up to help your club out on the weekend, who used to play but hasn't for ages, who didn't have anything on and thought it might be fun to have a bit of a run around.
That they wander into mishap and misadventures as often as they do suggests an unconscious relish for it all. And it is they who set the tone and tempo.
The first RBSC Sixes started a trickle of international players that has become a flood today. The list includes cricket legends Dennis Lillee, Sachin Tendulkar, Barry Richards, and lesser stars, Jeremy Coney, John Lever, Mike Gatting, Colin Miller... and so forth _ and while the stars are the centre of attraction, it is the misfits who anchor the Sixes, the chemistry between them lending a flair unique to the proceedings.
It is this flair that keeps teams from overseas returning to Thailand year after year, and they come from everywhere: Australia, England, India, New Zealand, South Africa, the Caribbean, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, the Middle East and even Canada.
They make it a habit to take a hiatus around the International Rugby Sevens in Hong Kong.
"Pajama party" _ a term coined for modern incarnations of cricket _ sits well with the Sixes, because in no other form of cricket is the line between sport, as a competition, and the point at which it veers toward sheer entertainment, more blurred.
It is in this grey area the Sixes fit neatly, the players bouncing from one mode to other with abandon. There have been times the entertainment has taken precedence, prompting calls for discipline. Needless to say, the free-flowing spirit circulates unrestrained.
It was 20 years ago that the Australia's fast bowling legend Dennis Lillee, here on his one and only foray to the Sixes, was asked for his opinion on how to keep the sport competitive without compromising the excitement.
His advice was crisp, to the point: "Why bother? Keep it as it is."
It is safe to say he must have relished the experience, the spirit of brotherhood among the players. Which is what the Sixes are all about, body and soul.
The RBSC Sixes this year drew 17 teams, mostly from the Indian subcontinent: the Chiang Mai edition from March 31-April 6 boasts a more cosmopolitan array: 30 teams including five from Thailand and one each from Japan, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.
The tournament in Hua Hin from April 5-10 at the Dusit Thani polo grounds will feature a record 21 teams this year, mostly from Australia.
Expect Phuket and Pattaya to have as much foreign presence and there is talk of Samui joining in.
Merging sport with entertainment has been a colossal success. The game has reached a point it is difficult to discern what comes first _ the sport or the entertainment?
Are the teams driven by sport with entertainment part and parcel of the package, or is entertainment the main driver, into which they try to fit in a bit of a run around?
Clearly, though, the Sixes have achieved a level of following unparalleled in Thai sports: no other sport can match the commitment or the loyalty with which teams have kept returning here for the better part of three decades.
In that time, one of them, the Wombats from Victoria in Australia, have come here every year, and there are others with similar mileage in Thailand, if not as long. And since many travel here accompanied by their children and spouses, every fixture is a great social occasion.
The Sixes format was created out of a necessity _ to provide the small band of expatriate and local cricketers a game or two in their spare time.
Little did the founding fathers know that in creating it they're setting in motion something momentous: in time the game will outgrow itself and its seeds scatter beyond the land of its birth to the far corners of the globe.
Cricket may be an English sport but the Sixes were discovered in Thailand, Myles de Vries, the sole surviving member of the founding quartet, recalls fondly.
Confined to a wheelchair in his waning years, in his pomp he batted for the RBSC and flew the flag of New Zealand Insurance, which is when the format was hatched.
So this brand of cricket is ingenious, its most compelling endorsement coming from the teams that travel here, and the fact that most literally invite themselves is a good barometer of its appeal as a sport and form of entertainment _ albeit one with arguably unmatched brand loyalty. Of even greater consequence is the spill over from the brand to the tourism industry.
Cricket is a colossal irrelevance? Hardly.