Courtesy of Dublin Cricket Club
Baseball isn’t the only sport that makes use of a ball and a bat in Dublin. Cricket is rising in popularity throughout central Ohio.
Originating in Cr, cricket holds some similarities to America’s pastime but features more complex gameplay involving 11 players and a batter defending a wicket at the center of the field.
Many Dublin area players have brought a love for the sport with them after immigrating to the United States.
“It’s something you’ve grown up playing so it’s in your blood,” says Ravi Darbha, a player for the Columbus Cricket Club Stallions. “It’s just enjoying the outdoors with friends and being out there on the weekends playing all day long.”
Darbha compares cricket’s growth in the States to the surging popularity of soccer, another internationally beloved sport that has found a following in the U.S.
“Slowly and steadily a lot of people, immigrants, migrants are coming over, and it’s their sport,” he says. “They needed a space to encourage their talents and their sports that they like, and it just grew over the years.”
In just a few years, Dublin has gone from having only a couple teams in the area to six and counting. Madhu Madire, a player for the Dublin Cricket Club Vikings, says increased exposure has driven that growth and points to the sport’s popularity with young people in particular.
“Most of the Asian countries play this game,” Madire says. “As fathers play, the kids get to know it and they start playing as well.”
While less popular than U.S. athletic mainstays like soccer, football or baseball, cricket is widely popular throughout the world, with fans in Asia, Australia, Europe and Africa.
The game is played with a wooden, paddle-like bat and cork centered ball. Most of the action takes place in the center of the field in a rectangular pitch where batters and non-strikers hit the
ball and run back and forth to score. Unlike most sports popular in America, the field shape is less particular for cricket. Teams play on circular, oval or irregularly shaped grass fields with rounded boundaries.
Currently, more than 20 teams compete in the MidWest Cricket Tournament, which includes competitors from Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.
The City of Dublin is taking note of cricket’s rising popularity, and is now home to two dedicated cricket fields, says Matt Earman, director of Parks and Recreation. Those two sites, Emerald Fields and Darree Fields, are open to the public for use, but permission is needed for organized groups.
The two spaces are vital to Dublin area cricketers, who face an increasing shortage of fields as demand for the sport increases.
“Getting practices is getting tougher and tougher every year,” Darbha says. “There are a lot of new people. With the influx of new people, there’s a need for facilities, new parks, new grounds.”
Luckily, the City of Dublin isn’t the only community meeting the needs of its athletes. New facilities are on the horizon throughout central Ohio, including indoor facilities, which give cricketers the ability to play and practice year-round.
New facilities opening up, especially indoor facilities that give players the ability to practice year round, are helping to alleviate those concerns, Darbha says. The American Youth Cricket Academy, an indoor and outdoor infrastructure in Delaware, Ohio, is one example.
“We certainly can see this going big eventually,” Darbha says.
Courtesy of Dublin Cricket Club
Kate Anderson is an editorial assistant at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
