Written by Shambhu Sharan on Oct. 30, 2009
UT-Arlington’s international students play cricket on weekends at outside of the Centennial Court apartments.
Some students play the game for fun and they would like to continue playing since they played it from their childhood.
Business graduate student Bharat Tejasvi plays cricket every weekend. He started playing cricket at the age of 10 in India. He played a tournament in the spring and he is planning to play it again.
“I don’t get time to go to a gym,” said Tejasvi. “I enjoy and exercise while playing cricket. It keeps me refreshed and brings a competitive spirit. UTA does not have a facility to play cricket. International students need funding to get equipment and a place.”
Chemistry graduate student Shirantha Perera played cricket in Sri Lanka. He plays the game every Friday in Centennial Court with his Srilankan and Indian friends.
“I play cricket for fun,” Perera said. “I don’t get much time for outside activities.”
A cricket game is time consuming. The whole game may take a day or two to complete.
Two teams play in a set number of innings. The team that scores the highest number of runs, after each team bats an equal number of times, wins the match.
Cricket is most popular in England and the former British colonies, such as India, Australia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the West Indies. The national teams travel internationally to play the game.
UTA students use a tennis ball instead of the harder cricket ball. They also use a piece of wood as the wickets, which are the two sets of three stumps forming the target of the bowler, this is defended by the batsman.
Playing cricket involves a ball and bat, like a baseball bat except more flat. The usual form of a cricket competition is called the Cricket Test Match.
The game is played between two teams made up of 11 players each, plus a reserve player in case of injuries. There are two empires for the whole game.
The batsman scores runs.
To score one run, a batsman must hit and run to one end of the pitch and back. Multiple runs can be scored per shot. If a batsman hits the ball and it lands on the ground and then goes outside the boundary it scores as four runs. If the ball goes outside the boundary without touching the ground then the player gets six runs.
Two players bat while the rest of the players on both teams are out on the field. The player who throws the ball is called the bowler.
The bowler bowls to a batsman, who hits the ball, runs to the other wicket (same time other batsman from the other wicket does the same) and this scores as one run. If the batsman misses the ball and it hits the wicket then the player is out and replaced by another batsman from his team.
Physics graduate student Prasad Joglekar plays cricket on Friday evenings when time permits.
Chemistry graduate student Subhash Chand plays with Joglekar and other students but he wants more players, he said.
For chemistry graduate student Santosh Mishra, chatting with friends in his native language and playing cricket reminds him of India.
The Indian Students Association organized a cricket tournament last spring, in which about 20 teams participated, said Mrinal Sengupta, chemistry graduate student.
“We grew up playing cricket in India,” said Swanand Phadke, electrical engineering graduate student. “I play at UTA for recreation.”
Cricket is a simple game with a ball and a bat, but not a popular sport among Americans.
Still, Indians here like it.
Some students play cricket on weekends at the UTA Bookstore’s empty parking lot.
Tejasvi plays the sport whenever he gets extra time from his studies, he said.
Cricket is a basic sport in India. The game unites university’s Indian students, said Tejasvi.
Marketing graduate student Darshan Shah said he will coordinate with the university’s international organization and organize a cricket tournament in spring 2010.
Although, the British introduced cricket to Indians, now it became our traditional game. When a cricket match starts, we Indians enjoy listening commentaries on radios or watching the game on televisions, Shah said.
Link: http://www.cricinfo.com/