Take Me Out to the Sticky Wicket

The game of cricket is wildly popular around the world but has never really caught on in the United States. The sport does have a presence at various levels, though, in America and in Central New York. And that presence has been growing in recent years.

Syracuse University, where currently 9% of the student population is made up of international students, offers several options to students looking for cricket action. In 1991, it became one of the first schools in the nation to add cricket to its intramural schedule. The inagural match was featured in The New York Times. Syracuse is also one of a handful of colleges and universities in the region and around the state to have a cricket club team. The student-run team organizes matches against nearby schools during a season which stretches from May to October. During the winter, the students play weekly indoor pickup matches among the members of the team. In recent years Syracuse has scheduled matches with the Cornell University Cricket Club, the Sodas Bay Cricket Club, and the Rochester Cricket Club.

In other areas intercollegiate cricket is becoming more organized. The Intercollegiate Cricket League was created in 2004 among schools in the area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The league, which was started by Temple University's cricket club team, organizes a tournament among the schools every semester. Earlier this year, dreamcricket.com featured a story on the founding of the tournament. The author wrote that cricket had all but disappeared in the United States until 2004, "which is when intercollegiate cricket saw a rebirth thanks mainly to the initiative of the cricket club of Temple University." The event has doubled in size since its creation, now including ten teams. Temple University is the defending champion.

Cricket is played between two teams, each with eleven players. The ball used is a hard cork or wooden ball covered in leather. The bat is a thin flat paddle with a handle similar to, but harder than, a tennis raquet. One team bats until all of its players are out, then the teams switch. The goal is to score more runs than your opponent. Games can last hours or even days. The game is played on a field called a pitch. At either end of the field is a wicket, which is three stumps in the ground with two horizontal pieces of wood, called bails, across the top. The batsman stands at one wicket, the pitcher, called the bowler, stands at the other. The bowler pitches the ball and the batsman tries to hit it. If he hits the ball, he runs betweens the wickets to score runs. Each wicket reached is worth one run. The player can continue to score runs until the other team is able to get him out. Fielders can get the batsman out by throwing the ball and hitting one of the wickets when the batter is not touching it. The batsman is also out if a hit ball is caught in the air or if the bowler throws the ball by him and knocks over the bails behind him.

New York City has taken one of the largest steps in introducing cricket to the mainstream. The city's Public Schools Athletic League has announced that it will initiate a Cricket Pilot Program in the spring of 2008. Over the summer, the PSAL organized several clinics to teach the basics and guage interest in the sport. The Daily News reported that at one such event in Queens a hundred students turned out, and the PSAL decided there was sufficient interest to go ahead with the program. Six schools in Brooklyn and Queens have signed on so far to form a team and take part in the program. Those schools have received $2,500 from the city in order to purchase cricket equipment. Dharmvir Gehlant, a high school math teacher and Indian immigrant, says he hopes to coach his school's team. He told The Daily News he was optimistic that the cricket pilot program would be a huge boost for his favorite sport, saying, "If you launch from the schools, it will take one generation to really popularize it, but I believe cricket can be as popular as baseball or basketball." In order to teach more students about cricket, the USA Cricket Association is putting together instructional materials that will be included in next year's physical education curriculum.

Participation in the game of cricket in New York City extends beyond the school-aged population. PSAL officials say they got the idea for the cricket program from watching adult-league matches throughout the city. The city's Department of Parks and Recreation currently grants permits to seven leagues, and maintains designated cricket fields in every borough. The department has even put together this video about the growing popularity of the sport. In May, the city held the inuagural Mayor's Cup Cricket Tournament featuring 28 of New York's top league teams.

Despite the inroads it has made, cricket still has a way to go in being accepted into the American mainstream. The successes the sport has achieved have been tempered by failures as well. In 2004 an independent group launched Pro Cricket, the first professional cricket league in the United States. Eight franchises were established, in major cities from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles. Several rules changes were introduced to add speed and action to the game and make it more exciting for American viewers. The league struggled due to poor attendance, however, and folded after one season. The San Francisco freedom won the lone championship.

The record of new professional sports leagues making it in the United States is not promising for a game like cricket. But for now, it continues to grow at the grassroots level. Players and enthusiasts are finding more outlets to enjoy the game they love. And people who didn't know anything about cricket are being exposed to it in their schools, universities, and communities. A sport that once was known only internationally is making its presence felt in America.

Photos courtesy of the Associated Press.