Friday, August 7, 2009

The Game of Cricket Thrives in Maryland



This video was shot on August 1 at the Cricket USA 2009 Tournament at the Cricket Grounds located behind New Town Elementary School in Owings Mills. Please visit Cricket USA's website to learn how you can participate in this exciting international sport.

Thanks to Tejash Natali, Girish Parab and Sanjeev Singh of OMCC Cricket USA, and the Owings Mills Recreation Council for making this edition possible.

We had a great, sunny, summer day that started very early, around 7AM when volunteers from the OMCC began arriving to put the cricket ground together. The morning match was the last semi-final between the College Park Jaguars and OMCC's own Team 2. In a test of Youth VS. Experience the OMCC2 team prevailed over the kids from College Park.

In the afternoon a Final match was played between OMCC1 and OMCC2. Although the OMCC1 team captained by Sanjay triumphed over their brothers led by Ciby, everyone joined in the celebrations afterwards.

The OMCC Chargers will continue to play practice games and matches on weeknights and weekend days even now, after the tournament. Please visit and see for yourself if you're interested. The players and their families are all very nice people, and Tej, Girish or any of the players will be glad to explain how the game works.

You can also learn about the game on Wikipedia as well as the Cricket USA site. You can get a good idea of the game from movies about cricket, too. I recommend LAGAAN starring Amir Khan, or IQBAL starring Shreyas Talpade. This September a new cricket film will be released starring my favorite actress Rani Mukerji; the film is called DIL BOLE HADIPPA! and apparently it's about a girl who puts on a fake beard to join a cricket team... "Dil bole bat and bowl!"

Visitors, please leave comments by clicking on the word "COMMENTS" below, and don't hesitate to add your favorite cricket links there, too!