Cricket … not just a phone company
By Monique Heath, Contributing Writer
Monday, October 17, 2005
Central State offers an ever-growing number of sports for students to play. We’ve got football, basketball and volleyball. Golf and tennis, too. And now, at long last … cricket.
Most of you probably have never heard of cricket. The British created cricket in India years ago. The sport is played in many countries, particularly former British colonies like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Australia. In cricket, players wear stumps (shoulder pads) and gloves. The game is similar to baseball, but instead of running around a diamond you run straight across a field. And two batters bat at the same time!
Merve Alphonso, a Central State administrator, said cricket is popular outside the United States. It’s played in the United States at schools such as Wright State, the University of Cincinnati, and the Ohio State University.
Alphonso has begun a cricket club at Central State. Membership is open to faculty, staff, students, alumni, and family and friends of CSU. The only criteria are that participants must be eighteen years old and be willing to play and have fun. The university does not fund the cricket club. It is supported through private dollars. Once a team is formed, it will collect small monthly dues from team members.
“I think it will promote camaraderie here on campus between the faculty, staff, and students,” Alphonso said. “Most of the athletic events, or I would say all athletic events taking place on campus, are played by students. There is never an opportunity for students, faculty, staff, and alumni to get together and have fun and this is an opportunity to do that.”
Alphonso is hoping that cricket will one day become an officially sanctioned sport at Central. “ I expect that we are going to have a lot of fun,” Alphonso said. “We are going to promote the sport to the point where cricket will become a university-supported sport just like basketball and football.”
Alphonso encourages anyone interested in cricket to join him and other cricket players every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. on the Central State softball field.
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