Passing through the Gilman quad on a weekend afternoon, strollers are often amused by a group of students playing a game of which most Americans have no knowledge. The game is cricket, and its players are the gentlemen of the Johns Hopkins University Cricket Club (JHUCC).
"Cricket in India is like soccer in Europe," says Vivek Haridas, the captain of the JHUCC and a graduate student in the Computer Science department. Haridas and the majority of the other players on the team originate from the Indian subcontinent, where cricket was introduced by the British in the early decades of the 18th century. Still, the popularity of the sport has continued long after India gained its independence in 1947 and the British retreated to their home isle.
For the 19 members of the JHUCC, being 7,500 miles from home doesn't dampen their cricketing spirits at all. The club's roster consists mainly of graduate students from the Homewood campus, although a few players from the medical school join them. The members all started playing cricket back in India and see the JHUCC as a good way to keep their skills sharp, while transporting an important part of Indian culture to Baltimore.
Originally founded as an SAC-sponsored undergraduate club, the team changed their sponsorship to the Graduate Representative Organization (GRO) in 2000 in order to receive additional funding for transportation, and more accurately reflect the make up of their team. The JHUCC is now classified as a "recreational club" under the GRO. Since cricket is a summer sport, the three practices every week on the Upper quad are just a way of keeping in form for the regular season.
The season normally starts in late spring and runs through the summer months. During this time, cricketers have games against other cricket clubs throughout the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. Names of the opposition range from the conventional Baltimore Cricket Club, to the exotic Damascus Cricket Club (based in Virginia) and the traditional British Officers Cricket Club.
Tradition runs deep in this genteel sport. The visiting team is often referred to as the "Tourists," teams take breaks for tea and the standard outfit is comprised of white pants, white shirts, and during chilly matches, a white knit jersey. Most of the membership of the Washington Metropolitan Cricket Board is made up of citizens of the British Commonwealth countries, and the players hail from all over the world, including India, the West Indies, Australia, New Zealand and England.
This mad passion for cricket became apparent to me while traveling in India this past summer. There I stayed in a village high in the Himalayas, remote by any definition. One day, while filling out a registration form, the owner of the hostel saw my New Zealand passport. We proceeded to have a lively conversation about the New Zealand Black Caps (the national cricket team). He knew most of the names of the Black Caps' players and told me how keen he was to follow the Indian XI's (cricket teams, being made up of 11 players, are called XI's) upcoming tour of New Zealand.
The JHUCC's last season saw them finish with five victories and three losses, a very respectable record considering that many of the other clubs in the area have better facilities. Since there is no cricket pitch (a pitch is a playing field) near Homewood, the Hopkins team has to practice on the lacrosse field during the summer.
What are the basic rules of this game? Cricket is notoriously complex and full of jargon (in what other sport would the words "googly," "golden duck," and "Howzat" appear?), and the rulebook weighs in heavily on the scale, with around 42 laws and four appendices.
No one pretends to know every rule of the game, but here is a much-shortened explanation for the newcomer: cricket is played between two teams of 11 players and the so-called "Twelfth Man" who can field, but can not bowl or bat. Most of the action takes place on a small rectangle of manicured grass called the "pitch" or "wicket." At opposite ends of the pitch are two sets of "stumps" or "wickets" which the batsmen have to defend. The object of the pitchers is to try and hit the wickets. Each player gets a chance to bat.
Runs are scored by batsmen running to the opposite wicket after hitting the ball (they exchange places on the pitch). Batsmen are "out" when a fielder catches the ball directly off the bat, before it has hit the ground. Other ways of getting out include being "bowled out," when the ball hits the stumps, and "LBW" (Leg Before Wicket), when the umpire rules that the ball would have hit the stumps if the batsman's pads hadn't been in the way.
The batting and bowling sides switch places after all the batters have been struck out, and whichever team has the most runs at the end of the game wins.
Most people think of cricket matches as being three to five days of boring "test cricket" which has slightly different rules than the more popular ODI (One Day International) matches. The ODI was invented to provide a more condensed version of cricket and is limited in the number of "overs" that are pitched. (An over is 6 bowls, and ODI matches have anywhere from 40 to 50 overs). The JHUCC's games are 40 overs long, and this is usually enough cricket for a full afternoon.
So, armed with your new-found cricket expertise, drop by the Upper quad next time you have a free Friday, Saturday or Sunday afternoon and watch Hopkins' most obscure athletes take to the pitch in fine style.
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