Students gathered at Lee Field Monday night to participate in a cricket match hosted by the Delta Sigma Iota men’s South Asian Fraternity as part of South Asian Awareness Week. 

The week will feature four events that highlight South Asian culture in an attempt to build multicultural awareness. 

Along with the Cricket event on Monday, the fraternity will hold a South Asian dance workshop Wednesday, sell samosas on the Brickyard Thursday and host a movie screening of India’s Daughter with a discussion next Tuesday.

The event was planned by Manish Sandra, a freshman studying engineering and Delta Sigma Iota’s service chair; and Anand Chokshi, a freshman studying biomedical engineering and the fraternity’s South Asian Awareness Week chair. 

“Last year we had fewer people than we wanted, so we really tried to come up with interesting events in order to better share our culture and possibly address any misrepresentations of South Asian culture,” Chokshi said.

With only one event last year, the fraternity thought that more events might help increase attendance this year. 

Organizers chose cricket as the first event because, although it was originally created in the United Kingdom, it has since become the second-most played sport in the world, with a particularly large following in southern Asia. 

“At least one billion people in the world hear, talk about, or play cricket every day,” said Rajan Amin, a junior double majoring in electrical and computer engineering who has been playing competitive cricket since 2007. 

Cricket has an extensive history and complex rule system. The game is divided into overs. Overs are six “bowls” or pitches. Games can be 20 overs, 50 overs or a five-day long game that features a combination of several 20 and 50 overs.

The cricket bats are slightly shorter than a standard baseball bat, with one flat side used to hit the ball and one wedged side, which isn’t typically used. The cricket ball is hard and solid.

Monday’s event didn’t use standard cricket balls because of possibility of injury. Instead, the fraternity used hardened tennis balls.

When bowled full speed, it is difficult to track the ball, especially when bouncing on the uneven surface of Lee Field. 

“Typically cricket fields, or ‘pitches,’ are hardened dirt fields that make it easier to predict the ball movement,” Amin said.

Only 11 players allowed on the pitch at any given time. The bowler’s goal is to knock over three sticks where a wicket rests. If the wicket falls, that is an out. The batter’s goal is to hit the ball away from the fielders in order to run to the other side of the pitch and score. 

“I enjoy cricket because it is so different, because I grew up with baseball, and it is so much fun to compare the two,” Chokshi said. 

The dance workshop was organized by Delta Sigma Iota, but members of Nazaare, NC State’s premiere Bollywood fusion dance team, are also assisting to organize the event.

The movie screening next Tuesday will address multicultural and a gender issues within South Asia. 

“India’s Daughter” is a documentary film made by Leslee Udwin about the 2012 gang rape of a 23-year-old woman studying physiotherapy. The screening is meant to highlight the problem of violence against women, which is currently prominent throughout India. Controversy has surrounded this documentary; the Indian government banned any showings of the film.