A postcard from Michigan,US
I am from Punjab, India. I started playing cricket when I was like 7-8 years old. Many sports came and went out the door except THIS one. Played a lot of cricket at middle/high school – went to play for my district and then got selected for state summer camp. That was the time in India when a ranji state drafts (had few from my district) were getting 350 rupees (4-5 sterling pounds) for the whole 40 day summer camp as their supplemental and pocket money. At that point, I ditched the idea of playing cricket professionally and focus on studies. I still played a lot of intercollege and interuniversity tournaments while I was in engineering school.
Moving on, reached New York on Aug. 17th, 2007 for a Masters and started looking for cricket. Played my first league game on 27th. Haven’t looked back since then. Cricket is the only thing that has made me miss home a little less (mind you I was 21 at that time and only one from my family in the whole country – no old friends and family to be around with). In New York, we play on a jute mat laid on a concrete or a natural pitch. It keeps the game fair between bat and bowl. Ball grips very nicely for spinners and for medium pacers- you can actually bowl good cutters because the nature of Mat.In New York, I have played along/against with Steve Massaih, Adrian Gordon, Akeem Dodson (All USA team guys), Jereome Lawson from West Indies(Guy who got a Hat trick against AUS ), numerous ex First class players from Guyana and Caribbean Islands.
Must say I have ended up being a weekend cricketer. Almost everyone being Monday to Friday – 9 to 5 guys – We started having a little of issues with Wives asking for more time and stuff. Made the games to be a family gathering thingie. Wives and Girlfriends will get together and b*tch about how much time and energy is wasted on cricket. Indian food and beer was served. Perfect competitive cricket (whatever we can get in States) with a relaxed side to it.
Moved to Michigan for job last year. Good cricket but don’t see many good teams for longer 40-40 overs. I learned and played my better cricket before T20 showed up. So still getting a hold of things in this format. Hopefully I will have T20 batting and bowling under control this year. Represented Michigan in regionals and central east in nationals – but when one works 9 to 5 every day I don’t see any further growth (atleast not in States). Here in michigan we play on astro-turf wickets. Fully bat dominated game. All the top scorers are technique-less sloggers. There isn’t much of tea break stuff BUZZ. Just regular pizza, powerade and fruits.
Bet’n there are a lot of weekend T20 tournaments that bring out a lot of overseas players (Hassan Raza from Pak – youngest to play test cricket, all the USA players, earlier years had Mohd. Azarrudin and Wasim Akram show up in games). So overall experience is very enjoyable. Every year have road trips to Chicago and Florida to play cricket (regionals and nationals – paid vacations lol ) – SUPER FUN.
Jag.
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Topic: A post card from... (Read 6042 times)