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NEWS
| OCTOBER 25, 2005
Batter Up
Campus cricket players embrace
their cultural pastime
By Elyse
Malanowski
Contributor to The Shorthorn
The crickets come out at night, but these bugs don’t bring
a crowd quite like the students who play cricket in the parking
lots.
Business administration sophomore Puneet Agarwal is an avid cricket
player and has played since he was little.
“We are crazy,” he said. “Give us a small space,
and we play.”
The teams consist of various Indians, Pakistanis and other international
students from the Indian subcontinent who are fond of the game,
he said.
Players bring cricket gear from their native countries, he said.
International students are only allowed a certain amount of luggage,
but they still bring their equipment.
“I actually brought my whole kit with me,” he said.
“Balls, bats, gloves and pads.”
Losing balls in ditches and bushes and getting visits from campus
police are a few of the problems teams face when playing, he said.
Electrical engineering freshman Ambrish Patel, originally from Kisumu,
Kenya, began playing when he discovered the cricket teams at the
university.
“It’s like football in the U.S.,” he said. “That
is what cricket is in India. For some people, cricket is like God
for them.”
The teams play mainly in the UTA Bookstore parking lot because it
is empty and well lit, he said.
Some want the university to sponsor the teams and provide them with
a stadium, Patel said.
“We played outside Kalpana Chawla Hall, and the cops came
and moved us,” he said.
Teams are usually seen on the weekends, but no formal game times
are set, he said.
“I go walk to the bookstore with three or four friends to
see if anyone is there, or sometimes we call to get everyone to
meet up,” he said.
Organizations such as the Pakistani Students Association and the
India Music Arts and Cultural Society have even created formal teams.
Finance marketing senior Hammad Tariq enjoys the strategic approach
of being captain of the association’s cricket team.
“I figure out what strategies we can use to help my team,”
he said.
Tariq has played cricket for 22 years and was on his university
team in Pakistan.
“I like to bat, personally, because I’m good at [it],”
he said.
Most international students focus on their studies, but when the
weekend rolls around, students come out to play, he said.
“Some people go to clubs on the weekends,” Tariq said.
“And this is what we do.”
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