[BITList] US cricket gets serious

John Feltham wulguru.wantok at gmail.com
Wed Mar 25 04:31:56 GMT 2009 

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/25/sports/25cricket.php


The Boston University cricket team was one of five college groups to  
participate in the American College Spring Break Cricket championship  
in Florida. (Rhona Wise for The New York Times)
On spring break, cricket gets serious
By Joshua RobinsonPublished: March 25, 2009


   E-Mail Article

   Listen to Article

   Printer-Friendly

   3-Column Format

   Translate

   Share Article


   Text Size


LAUDERHILL, Fla.: Sandwiched between a soccer game and a barbecue, the  
Montgomery College cricket team edged closer and closer to victory.  
And when at last it came, after four days of wickets, overs and sixes,  
the players were exultant. Just as cricketers do from Australia to  
Antigua, they snatched the wooden cricket stumps out of the grass and  
waved them around their heads in mad celebration.

The players felt they had claimed more than the three-foot trophy for  
the first American College Cricket spring break championship. In their  
minds they had brought their sport one step closer to the American  
mainstream.

Though cricket counts its fans by the billion worldwide, the sport  
does not register a pulse in the United States. Of the five teams in  
attendance at this experimental event last weekend — Montgomery, from  
Maryland; Boston University; Carnegie Mellon, from Pittsburgh; the  
University of South Florida and the University of Miami — most exist  
only as social clubs. None of them have club team status, and the  
sport is not officially recognized by the N.C.A.A.

"This is an opportunity for us to really show athletic directors at a  
Division I level that cricket matters, cricket is a big sport and  
cricket has a marketing capability in this country," said Sumantro  
Das, an all-rounder and junior at Boston University, who learned to  
play as a child in India.

With only a few weeks' notice, the five teams did what many college  
students do this time of year: they packed their sunscreen and headed  
to Florida. Nearly 60 players drove or flew at their own expense to  
the lush cricket pitches of Central Broward Regional Park. They played  
Twenty20, a version of cricket in which many stuffy traditions are  
left behind and matches are completed in about three hours instead of  
taking up to five days. The only custom-built cricket stadium in the  
United States stands in this park, but securing the 5,000-seat  
facility was far too rich a luxury for the tournament's shoestring  
budget. Competing on the park's manicured fields was already an  
upgrade over the converted soccer fields and tennis courts the players  
were used to.

Multimedia

Video: A new pitch for cricket
» View

Today in Sports

In a hard-fought final, Japan stays on top of the world

Winner takes all, and on the field, too

Leipheimer wins time trial at Castilla Leon

"I wanted them to see the stadium to know what they are playing for,"  
said Lloyd Jodah, the founder and president of American College  
Cricket. "That is where we want to be next year."

The idea for the college tournament came to him last year as he  
campaigned to have cricket included in the Olympics. Standing on Wall  
Street with a cricket bat in one hand and petitions in the other,  
Jodah, 50, an immigrant from Guyana who works selling health club  
memberships, met Kalpesh Patel, a Jamaican business student from the  
University of Miami.

Once Jodah heard how difficult it was for college cricketers to find  
regular games, he began toying with the idea of a nationwide  
organization for collegiate clubs and founded American College  
Cricket. He made a group on Facebook as a way to reach out to players.

"We always had the desire to play, but there was no real framework for  
us to get involved," Patel said. "So this idea gave us the push to get  
involved with the most competitive form of the game."

Jodah and Nino DiLoreto, 62, a former soccer player from Abruzzi,  
Italy, spent many evenings tracking down college cricket players, and  
the group swelled to more than 500 members.

"We could have waited till next year to have the tournament and maybe  
taken more time to organize it," Jodah said. "But it was important to  
actually do something this year, to have something to show for  
ourselves."

Invitations went out and T-shirts were printed.

At the Boston University Cricket Club, expenses for the trip became  
the subject of six- and seven-hour meetings. After much deliberation,  
and financial help from the university, the roughly dozen members  
agreed that the opportunity to play for a long weekend was worth $400  
each.

"Putting up that kind of money, especially when most of us have none,  
was a big decision for us," Das said. "But it was significant because  
who else is doing anything for cricket in this country?"

Unlike a couple of the teams, which had snazzy uniforms, the  
University of South Florida contingent did not even have a team until  
a few weeks ago; they were just a few guys who played a regular pickup  
game. They settled on sweatpants and green T-shirts from the college  
bookstore. Not having names on their shirts caused a few awkward  
moments when a player would run to the borrowed picnic table/scorer's  
table with no idea of which of his new teammates was batting next.

But the players all knew the finer points of cricket etiquette,  
lilting cries of "Ball" or "Shot" into the wind after each pretty play  
— high cricket praise that requires no adjectives. Other cheers  
followed in at least a half-dozen different languages and dialects,  
but instructions on the field were usually in English. Miami players  
adopted an English-only rule after a few plays were botched in  
translation.

Nearly all the players were born abroad. And even though the sport had  
a rich history in the United States until World War II, it is still  
widely seen here as an obscure game played exclusively by foreigners.  
Most who play it here are from countries that belonged to the British  
Commonwealth. The aim of this tournament, Jodah and DiLoreto  
explained, was to make cricket more accessible by growing its college  
identity, something that rubbed off on the Miami players as they  
belted Hurricanes chants.

"We're not playing on Saturdays for the fun of it anymore," Patel  
said. "We're playing for our school."

After the championship match, in which South Florida could not handle  
Montgomery's firepower, the local fans — three Jamaican retirees  
sitting in the shade — nodded in approval, clapping politely.

Many of the players said the four-day adventure had spurred them to  
continue growing the sport when they return to campus. And nine years  
after moving to Maryland from his native Pakistan, Montgomery's  
captain, Adil Bhatti, said he hoped to take it one step further. He  
wants to try out for the United States national team, which plays in  
International Cricket Council tournaments.

"We live here and we play cricket here," Bhatti said. "I would  
absolutely want to represent the U.S."




-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0001.shtml 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: cricket.550.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 115131 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0001.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: dot_h.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 43 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0026.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: dot_h.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 43 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0027.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: at_narrow_top.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 71 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0028.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: icon_at_email.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 77 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0029.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: dots_at_narrow.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 56 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0030.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: icon_at_audionews.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 77 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0031.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: dots_at_narrow.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 56 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0032.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: icon_at_printerfriendly.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 76 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0033.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: dots_at_narrow.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 56 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0034.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: icon_at_3col.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 64 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0035.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: dots_at_narrow.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 56 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0036.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: icon_at_translate.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 75 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0037.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: dots_at_narrow.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 56 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0038.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: icon_at_share.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 79 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0039.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: dots_at_narrow.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 56 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0040.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: btn_textsize_sm.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 183 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0041.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: btn_textsize_lg.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 187 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0042.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: icon_at_textsize.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 71 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0043.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: dots_at_narrow.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 56 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0044.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: at_narrow_bot.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 78 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0045.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: dot_h.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 43 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0046.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: dot_h.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 43 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0047.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: dot_h.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 43 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0048.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: dot_h.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 43 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0049.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: dot_h.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 43 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0050.gif 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: dot_h.gif
Type: image/gif
Size: 43 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20090325/c1bf4086/attachment-0051.gif

More information about the BITList mailing list