The loud crack of a cricket ball hitting junior Vedant Chaturvedi’s bat rings around the turf of the football field on Wednesday, Feb. 25. He’s playing a game at the monthly Cricket Club meeting.
Last year, Chaturvedi immigrated to the U.S. from India, and brought a passion for cricket with him. Cricket is a bat and ball sport played between two teams of 11 on an oval field. The sport is popular in several South Asian countries, alongside Australia, the UK and South Africa, according to The Conversation.
However, in Missouri high schools, Chaturvedi noticed a problem.
“In Missouri, we saw that no school has a cricket club,” Chaturvedi said. “But, when I talked to people, I got to know that people do like cricket, but there is no one to organize [it].”
Chaturvedi is the co-founder and co-president of the MHS Cricket Club, which started this school year.
Taking inspiration from other states like Texas and New Jersey who had established cricket clubs in several high schools, Chaturvedi and juniors Lalitaditya Vasanth and Abhijith Nair now have about 30 members in their club at MHS.
Chaturvedi said he hopes to expand, and wishes to one day host a high school cricket tournament. He encourages anyone to join the club.
“We have tournaments for volleyball, we have tournaments for football, but we have no tournaments for cricket,” Chaturvedi said. “Cricket is not technically an Indian sport. England invented it. So, if they can play, I think anybody can play.”
Felica Durst, club sponsor, said the club meets once a month on the football turf for both mods of Ac Lab. For Durst, sponsoring the club was easy, as she is already out on the track during Ac Lab, and the space was available.
Living in Defiance, Missouri, Durst said she often sees cricketers playing on the fields at the American Cricket Academy and Club field in Wentzville.
“I thought it would [be] interesting to learn more about the game and give students at MHS the opportunity to play during the day,” Durst said.
As the vice president of the club, Nair said the club is fun and gives students the chance to learn how to play cricket.
Nair said previous meetings of the club went well since many members showed interest, but he still aspires that the club can expand outside of Ac-Lab so more students can participate.
“We started to make a change to high schools in Missouri,” Nair said. “There’s many people from different ethnicities here in America, so we just bring together the people who already play these sports.”
