Cricket club seeks to expand

Laughs and cordial greetings echoed down the athletic center hallway from the auxiliary gym last Thursday at 10:30 p.m. Inside, players of the JHU Cricket Club organized themselves into teams to kick off their first official practice. Once this was settled, the bowler focused on the far-off stumps and began winding up. After he gained momentum from a short jog and a windmill-style arm motion, the ball was released and hit by the bat with a loud crack. The outfielders scrambled to get the ball to the stumps and the hitters dashed back and forth to get as many 22-yard runs as possible.

Founded by senior Shreyash Milak, sophomore Arjun Tambe, freshman Mustafa Ali and alumni Nishant Ganeshkumar and Paul Das, the JHU Cricket Club aims to act as a forum for cricket enthusiasts on the Homewood campus to get together and play.

“We’ve seen that there is an interest for cricket on the Hopkins campus, and we wanted to make sure that talents and that interest wouldn’t go to waste,” Ali said. “We made sure to make this club to have everything organized and so that we could have fun.”

For the past seven years, a group of graduate students have been practicing cricket on Keyser Quad each spring for the Howard County Cricket League tournaments. Many of the founding members of the undergraduate organization met at these practices.

“I saw them playing my freshman year, and then in the fall this year. I joined them once, and that’s how we all met,” Tambe said.

As a freshman, Milak tried to find a cricket club on campus during his first semester. It wasn’t until second semester that he happened upon those playing on Keyser Quad. He is looking forward to getting the ball rolling for an official cricket presence on campus.

“More than anything it’s an organized way to play cricket, rather than being a little discrete,” Milak said.

Other than weekly practices, the club is looking forward to organizing other cricket-focused events. The graduate and undergraduate student groups are collaborating on viewing parties for the Cricket World Cup, which starts on Feb. 14.

“The graduate club just sent me an email because they were planning the same thing and they were wondering if we wanted to combine with them,” Tambe said.

The Cricket World Cup will be held in Australia, a testament to the international following of the sport. The global popularity of cricket, which began in the mid-1800s in Britain, can most likely be attributed to British imperialism.

“I just do not understand why it is not as much [in America],” Milak said. “It’s been picking up lately because [in] New Zealand it’s big, South Africa it’s big, England it’s big, of course [in] India [it’s big], and the subcontinent and the Caribbean, so that’s always been a little puzzling to me.”

Although cricket is not as well-recognized in the United States, the JHU Cricket Club would like to see that change.

“First things first, [we want to] increase awareness of cricket as a sport,” Tambe said.

Through events and practices, the club hopes to prompt more members of the Hopkins community to become part of the cricket community by sharing their passion and love for the game.

“I’ve definitely found that... and this isn’t just for Hopkins, people who play cricket and appreciate cricket, really — and I don’t want to sound corny — but have some connection and get along well,” Tambe said.

With the growth in communication technologies and globalization, cricket has already become easier to watch in the U.S.

“Back when we were growing up, you would have to have a dish, then you would have to have the international dish, then you would have to buy that package to watch that match, so that was a huge hassle, so it was really hard to watch it,” Tambe said. “But now it streams online and it’s on ESPN, so it’s a lot easier to watch things.”

As cricket gains in popularity in the U.S, leagues are beginning to form all around the country. Other than the Howard County Cricket league, there is also the American College Cricket league. With 79 member universities, this is the most comprehensive college cricket tournament in the country.

As the JHU Cricket Club develops, Milak hopes to get involved in these competitive opportunities.

“Yesterday was our first practice actually, so this semester we are just going to try to get everyone involved and see who’s interested and what kind of interest we have, and maybe mid-semester start getting a little involved with strength and conditioning a little more, just so that, if possible, next semester we can be a part of [American College Cricket] and join them,” Milak said.

As 12 Hopkins cricket enthusiasts gathered in the auxiliary gym late on a Thursday night, their passion for cricket reverberated on campus.

“You can play it anywhere and everywhere and it can be the shortest game or it can be the longest game, so you can play it anytime,” freshman Osama Khokhar said. “That’s the greatest aspect.”