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Cricket
may be baseball’s great-granddaddy. But no Yankees, Mets or Red Sox
fan is going to understand it without a lot of studying. There are
bowlers and batsmen, wickets and wicket-keepers. There are fielders
— 11 instead of baseball’s nine. There are outs — 10 per batter
instead of three per inning. There is something called an over. As
for scoring, don’t ask. Suffice to say that one guy (the bowler)
tosses the ball and another guy (the batsman) hits it and tries to
run between two sets of wickets. International matches can last a
week and average 250 or more runs. It’s comforting to hear that the
American version of the game will last just one hour. There’s good
news for the curious: A local group of players who call themselves
the Danbury Hatters Cricket Club plans to compete in the Connecticut
Cricket League in 2002. The team will play at Broadview School,
between two lacrosse fields. The CCL has 14 teams, including sides
from New Haven, Bridgeport, Stamford, Greenwich, Hartford, Norwalk
and Waterbury. The season coincides with baseball, running from
April to September. To familiarize the public with the game, the
Danbury club will sponsor a one-day cricket tournament at Broadview,
July 28 at 10 a.m. Admission is free, but there are no grandstands.
Spectators are advised to bring their own chairs. Refreshments will
be available. “Quite a few Indian and Pakistani players already play
at Rogers Park and Danbury High on the weekends,” said Adeel Syed of
Danbury, a 22-year-old computer science student at Western
Connecticut State University . “There is already a large interested
population in the area. The majority are Pakistanis and Indians, but
the league we are going to play in is much more diverse. There are
teams of West Indians, Trinidadians and Brazilians. Syed, Asim
Zafar, Reyur Desai and Atif Zafar, the team captain, form the
nucleus of the 20-member local club. Cricket, which began in the
early 18th-century, is popular with most natives of countries of the
former British Empire, plus Italy, Germany, Israel, Argentina and
Korea. “Cultural, religious and natural animosities are usually put
aside on the cricket pitch,” Syed said. “One of our hopes is to
bring local Pakistanis and Indians together. We are one culture with
some distinct differences. We know the game can bring us together.
If we can do it in cricket, we can learn to do it in other ways.”
Although Syed was born in Pakistan, he was raised in New York and
Danbury playing baseball and basketball. He still plays basketball
every other day. “I recently went back to Pakistan to involve myself
in my roots,” he said. “I became interested in cricket while I was
there and learned to play the game.” Since returning home to
Danbury, he has been playing the game on weekends. “Right now, I may
be the youngest guy on our team,” he said. “And many of us have
younger brothers who are also playing, but lack experience.”
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The
NEws-Times/Douglas Healey
Jay
Srinivas defends his wicket during a cricket practice with the
Danbury Hatters Cricket Club. To establish its identity and
familiarize the public with the game, the club will sponsor a
one-day cricket tournament at Broadview Middle School, July 28 at 10
a.m.
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Douglas
Healey
Cricket
players strap on leg pads before batting to protect against
the hard leather and cork ball.
Douglas
Healey
Adeel
Syed, 22, of Danbury, a computer science student at Western
Connecticut
State
University, bowls during a cricket practice at Broadview
Middle School. |
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