If one happened to stumble upon the N.C. State Cricket Club team practice, he or she might think those young men had lost their minds. To the untrained eye, cricket looks a bit like baseball with two bases and a heavy red ball. However, that’s not baseball, and the bat is flat for a reason.
Cricket is a sport that originated in England and consequently spread around the world. However, it hasn’t yet caught on in America.
“It’s not a very popular sport here,” Harsh Desai, a senior in nuclear engineering, said. “But I think it is going to become more popular. It’s on the rise.”
Club president Naresh Devineni, a graduate student in civil engineering, said playing cricket provides a small piece of home.
“It’s a major game back home [in India]. It’s one of the most popular games,” Devineni said. “We all grew up playing it. Here, we’re just playing it for fun.”
Fun seems to be high on the priority list of the members of the cricket team.
“We practice every Friday,” Devineni said.
“If it’s not too cold,” Gautam Mehra, a graduate student, clarified.
“And we usually party afterwards,” Sammi Syed, graduate student in civil engineering, added.
Saturday and Sunday the cricket team hosted a tournament on Lee Field to raise awareness for its club.
“It’s an in-house tournament to recruit players,” Desai said. “We’ve always had trouble finding players when it comes regular-season time because nobody knows that we even have a club. Plus, a majority of the students that play here are graduate students because our team plays in the summer, and most undergrads go home.”
The tournament began with six teams, which were eliminated one by one until the final two battled it out Sunday at noon.
Desai’s team, which won the event, consisted of Devineni, Mehra, Syed and three other teammates. The group won a $50 prize, but it donated it back to the club.
“Besides getting the word out there, this tournament is also kind of a fundraiser,” Desai said. “We charge each team $18. However, to rent Lee Field costs us $50 Saturday and $40 Sunday, plus we provided Gatorade and stuff, so this is a fundraiser, but we’re actually probably losing money.”
In addition, Desai said finding a place to play is a common issue for the cricket team.
“Because this sport is not known to many, certain venues are not as willing to let us use their space for practices and games,” Desai said, choosing his words carefully. “We’ve had our reservations canceled a few times. They don’t take care of us as much as they would, say, soccer or baseball.”
State’s cricket team has traditionally been a top contender in its conference, the Mid-Atlantic Cricket Conference.
“Last year we had a pretty good season. We won five games, and we just missed the playoffs,” Devineni said.
Through all the trials of managing a club sport that is not well-known, Desai said there’s one accomplishment he and his team are quite proud of.
“We are one of the only teams here at N.C. State that has beaten UNC three years in a row,” he said. “We’re pretty proud of that.”