One of the more popular sports in parts of the world is steadily gaining interest across the U.S., including in Peoria.
On a warm Tuesday evening, teammates Sai Sandeep Mamidala, Pavan Bonthu and Nitin Attuluri are among the dozens of players gathered at a cricket field nestled amid the trees and corn stalks at Leslie Rutherford Park, south of Dunlap.
They are members of the Cricket Association of Peoria (CAP), a 16-year-old non-profit organization that is once again experiencing a growth in participation following a brief decline during the COVID years.
Sai Sandeep, 31, has lived in Peoria for 10 years after growing up in India, where he began playing cricket around age 7. He says having the opportunity to play recreation league cricket here allows him to stay active and build relationships.
“Being this far from our home country and being able to get together with our family and friends, that's really fun,” he said. “That's the important thing here, other than playing the game. It's just the bonding.”
Likewise, Pavan, 29, says being a CAP player for the past four years has helped him make new friends while enjoying the sport he also started playing at an early age.
“When I came into Peoria, I didn’t know anybody except, like, one or two people. But now I know, like, more than 50 people, 50-100 people. It's really all through cricket,” he said.
Nitin, 30, says that over the seven years he's played with CAP, he's noticed the local interest in cricket continue to build.
“It is not only (players) from India. A few people have come from Pakistan, a few people are from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka,” he said. “So altogether, it’s getting to know the different people from different countries.”
With CAP membership predominantly comprised of immigrants from India and Asia, cricket gives them a way to connect as a community here in Peoria – and to satisfy an urge for friendly competition.
“We have rivalries between the teams, but not in negative ways or hostile ways. We have very competitive teams here,” Nitin said. “The level of the competitiveness is also increasing year by year. We used to have five or six good teams. Now, it is a really big challenge for us to go to the next level of the tournament stage.”
Cricket is a bat-and-ball sport played on a circular field, featuring a rectangular pitch in the middle with wickets at each end. Using a ball slightly harder than a tennis ball, two teams of 11 players each attempt to score the most runs over a series of innings.
The various aspects of play can be complex, but putting it simply: A bowler delivers the ball down the pitch to the opposing team’s batsman, who tries to hit it and run back and forth between the wickets – exchanging places with a teammate – before the fielding team “dismisses” the batters.
“It’s just like any other sport, like how when I came to America, I didn't know how to play baseball or any other sport,” said Badri Balasubramanian, who has been with CAP since it started in 2008 and now serves as the association's treasurer and an organizer.
“I kind of watched, learned with help of my friends and people around kind of explaining stuff. So cricket is the same way, nothing different. If you’ve played baseball, you can play this pretty easily.”
Badri says the organization began with around eight teams of 15 players each, before expanding gradually. He says they lost some teams during COVID, but now stand at about 16 teams with 20-player rosters, and the sport continues to grow.
“Partly because of the immigrants that are here; this is sort of our sport we grew up with,” he said. “We all came here and this was something that just brought us together, irrespective of which Asian country we belong to. We kind of came together as friends and peers to just start playing cricket, form teams, and then it's just been growing over the years.”
Badri said the CAP doesn’t have a set age requirement, players under 18 must fill out a waiver in case of any injury.
“It's pretty much open to everybody, men and women, and they can have cricket experience or could be newcomers,” he said. “Really it doesn't matter; it's open to all.”
Association member Ganesh Pandi says the organization appreciates the Peoria Park District for providing space for their CAP Cricket Grounds.
“Over a period of time, we have found ways and we have constantly looked to improve it and make it safer and better for every single one of us to play here,” he said.
Ganesh says he's impressed by how much interest in CAP has increased, reaching a point where they're able to schedule some winter matches at the Louisville Slugger Complex.
“It's amazing to see a community like Peoria have 300-plus people playing the sport – and we have not done a great job marketing it out; this is just by word of mouth,” he said. “But it’s bringing people together, right?, and playing this (sport).
“We have been running for 15-plus years now, and we started as an outdoor league and now we have transformed into an indoor league as well. So we have cricket going on throughout the year.”
Badri says CAP has various leagues playing regularly from April through September at the CAP Grounds, as well as another field in Mossville near the soccer complex.
“The community is understanding how we coexist, and that has gone pretty well,” he said. “We try to advertise it to bring more (players), not just Asian Americans and Indians. We want to get even the Americans to come play. We've had some folks who come out and tried it, who played for a little bit and then they moved on to other sports.”
Badri and Ganesh both believe cricket in America is on the rise, following Team USA’s dramatic upset win over Pakistan in the men's T20 World Cup last month in Dallas.
“For them to beat a team as big as Pakistan was a really huge task and huge achievement,” Badri said. “It's like a milestone for them to achieve, and I’m proud to see that the sport has come this far. There is enough interest and there are a lot of Americans who are actually coming in and playing the sport. I would like to see more of that happen in Peoria so that we can share the passion.”
Ganesh says now CAP hopes to find a way to capitalize on that momentum.
“We want more people to come and watch this; I think that's one of the things that we are trying to do this year, to see ‘what else can we do?’” said Ganesh, noting a major event planned for the third week in August.
“We have these finals, which we advertise. We’ll print posters (that) we circulate among all the community over here,” he said. “We’ll have snacks and drinks that we provide – only for the final game – so that we at least have some audience cheer for us and things like that.
“Make it a more family event; have families come over, have the kids get some exposure. So these are the ways we are trying to reach out to the community and bring in some more attention to the sport.”
The CAP Premier League 2024 finals pitting the Peoria Cricket Club team against the Bradley Bulls are scheduled for Aug. 11 starting at noon at the CAP Cricket Ground.
