Cricket in a Foreign Land

Avid readers of my blog may remember that I am the vice-president of a university cricket club. This would not be particularly note-worthy if not for the fact that the university is in the good old US of A! Cricket in America is an interesting experience, and certainly has novelty value.

The club I am involved with is competitive, enthusiastic, and reasonably competent. We are like any cricket club: We have a 5 member committee made up of players - The president has been largely absent during the season, the secretary always forgets to bring a pad and pen to meetings and cannot see the value of taking minutes, and the treasurer doesn't handle the club finances as the chairman is obsessed with making sure they are done correctly!

Last weekend was our big tournament: 6 teams from 3 states, 100 F weather, and around 70 players born in the subcontinent (of all the players in all the squads myself and a New Zealander were the only caucasians).

A few random observations:
- We lost the final. A visiting team needed 6 runs from the final over with 9 wickets down. A four, a wide, and a flick over the close in fielders, and it was all over! Having said that, we lost the first two of our four league games, so to make it through to the final was quite something!

- Over 150 gallons of Gatorade was consumed during the two days!

- Of 15 games played, 12 went down to the wire (including a tie!).

- One team had two flat tires on their way to the tournament in their team van! They arrived at their hotel at 5am, but were first to the ground at 9am the same morning, were on time for every game (winning 3 of their 4 league games), and were by far the most courteous team at the tournament (including our own!).

- Finally, when running behind on the first day and needing to shorten the one hour lunch break, a team complained that 20 minutes was insufficient time for lunch. When asked the shortest time they would need for lunch, they replied "One and a half hours"... They got 45 minutes.