As a boy,I played cricket every chance I got, mainly with my brothers, Michael & Ricky who were close to my age & later Errol, or with anyone, & even alone !…we played in the sunshine & in the dark….I wished I could get school credit for playing, but thought that was pure fantasy !  

Well, thanks to the work of Boston University Cricket Club President Hayat Khan students at BU can now get credit for learning & playing cricket !

Some months ago Hayat began the process of motivating the relevant college administrators to start such a class. He discussed the idea with American College Cricket President Lloyd Jodah, who gave Hayat a syllabus,& some suggestions. Nadir Budhwani, Phd had pioneered such a course  in 2005 at the University of Minnesota, which was continued by Charles Peterson.

In between doing his college work & exams, playing in the American College Cricket Regionals ( BU’s first match on TV), & getting the team ready for the Nationals, Hayat made a film & did the requisite presentations to get the course approved, then called Lloyd with the great news !

Here’s Hayat’s description of the class:

The class is called PDP GS 150 (GS for general sports). It’s a 1 credit class and it meets in the FitRec which is the Fitness and Recreation Center (the gym). It will be held on Mondays and Wednesdays from 10 am to 11 am. BU student Hayat Khan will be the instructor for the class.

Beginning-level course on the history and rules of cricket. Basic skills will be explored with an emphasis on mastering batting, bowling and fielding techniques. By the end of class, students should be familiar with the fundamentals of cricket and be able to participate in practice games. Equipment will be provided.

Hayat at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011, teaching a boy how to hold a bat.

This class comes soon after BU put an exciting moving cricket graphic as their banner on the University Homepage !

A true American cricketer, Hayat Khan is the BU Cricket Club President & Captain, & has played in a number of American College Cricket National & Regional Championships. As a high school student he played in the PSAL and the NYPD youth cricket leagues, & one of the reasons he selected Boston University for college, was because he read about BU’s American College Cricket team.

The Boston University CC under then President Sumantro Das, & Captain Shilpin Makwana is one of the 5 pioneering pillars of American College Cricket that played the first Championship in 2009 and has played every tournament since. It was given the honor of being the first college team (vs Rutgers) to play at the CBRP Cricket Stadium (in 2010).

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 At a Press Conference in New York City the world’s current # 1 ranked batsman, Shiv Chanderpaul,on Thursday announced the launch of the American College Cricket Hall of Fame on the 4th anniversary of his involvement in American College Cricket. 

Cricket has been played at Harvard, off and on,for over 200 years and an official club was begun in 1862. Restarted in 2011, Harvard Cricket will this Sat play vs National Champions York College on TV ! its the Semi Finals of the American College Cricket North East Championship, for the Deryk Jodah Trophy on TV Asia at 7 pm on Saturday !

 York College Cricket club,on the other hand,was begun in 2010 and that year reached the Finals of the National Championship, then this year York College won the Chanderapul Trophy. Its strong batting features Akeem Dodson, Karan Ganesh, Bilal Shahid and Abbas Khizer whilst Shahid, Yaseen Khan and Suleman Mohammed head the bowling line up.

Two Harvard Law School grads, President Obama, and Mitt Romney competed for the Presidency of the United States. Of any university, Harvard has had the most alumni, eight including President Obama, become President. 

These cricket players have a chance to establish a name as the best cricketer from Harvard in modern times ! So watch TV Asia, Sat at 7pm for Harvard vs York College !

Here’s a well-produced video that connects, and hits it out of the park – its part of what we do & is in our tagline: “Bringing back the Original American Game.”

Last year we helped the National Baseball Halll of Fame celebrate their joint Exhibition with the MCC :
“Swinging Away, how Cricket & Baseball connect”
http://baseballhall.org/news/press-releases/sporting-cousins-hall-fame-celebrates-new-swinging-away-exhibit-weekend-programs

Check our website for photos and reports on American College Cricket at the National Baseball Hall of Fame
http://americancollegecricket.com/2011/06/10/hall-of-fame-pitch-for-cricket-cooperstown-dreams-photos/

http://americancollegecricket.com/2011/05/24/baseball-hall-of-fame-cricket-weekend-june-4-5-american-college-cricket-swinging-away-at-historic-exhibit/

 From the Harvard Crimson in 1887:  Recently the following challenge was sent to the Yale News by the Harvard Cricket Association:- 

“Gentlemen: We wish, in the name of the Harvard University Cricket Association, to challenge, through your paper, Yale University to play a match game of cricket next spring, the date and place to be arranged here-after. The challenge will remain open until Feb. 1, 1888. Hoping that we shall soon have a favorable answer, we are yours very truly,

JAMES B. MARKOE, President.

T. WILLING BALCH, Treasurer.

REYNOLDS D. BROWN, Secretary.”

 

The Harvard Crimson went on to say, “There is no regular cricket eleven at Yale, but there must be many men who have played the game either at St. Paul’s School or elsewhere before going to college.”

 

In connection with the above challenge, the New York Times said editorially:-

“The challenge of Harvard to Yale to meet her in a match at cricket would have more chance of acceptance were not this sport one of the few in which the New Haven institution as yet makes no pretensions to expertness.

 

The great cricketing college is the University of Pennsylvania, which is very easily first in it. The laurels of base-ball, foot-ball, boating, tennis, or field and track athletics may pass from one institution to another during successive years, but no American college meets Pennsylvania on the wicket with much prospect of coming off victor. 

Haverford, Columbia and Harvard, however, often put fine elevens in the field, and it would probably give a great impulse to one of the most beneficial and least objectionable of college pastimes if Yale should now accept the Harvard challenge, pick out a team of cricketers, and with the opening of spring begin field practice in earnest.“

 

Though there were other challenges our Research Dept (aka Google) has found no record of Yale fielding a cricket team,against Harvard or other universities, nor did cricket historian David Sentance.

 

At the end of 2008 when Lloyd Jodah was beginning American College Cricket, Yale was one of the first colleges he was in contact with, a student named Varun Parundare, in attempting to start cricket clubs for the first American College Cricket Spring Break Championship.

 

It was Parundare who gave Jodah the link showing the Spring Break dates for US colleges.  The promotional posters (scrapped) for the first American College Cricket Spring Break Championship listed Yale as one of the teams.

 

Ultimately Yale did not field a team, and University of Pennsylvania once again led the way to become the first Ivy League school to join American College Cricket, in 2010. However within the last month, Harvard, Cornell and Princeton have joined the national organisation, and played in the American College Cricket North East regional. Harvard defeated Princeton in their first meeting, on Oct 6.

 

This semester the Yale club managed to pull together a team to take on their historic rivals Harvard, in a “friendly” cricket match as reported excellently here in the Yale Daily News:

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2012/oct/16/yale-plays-first-ever-collegiate-cricket-match/

 

So 150 years after an official cricket club was first started at Harvard (1862), and 124 years after the challenge was issued, Harvard and Yale finally met in a cricket match ! 

Penn Cricket field in the 1800′s

Harvard Cricket Club, originally founded 1862,restarted 2011, now in American College Cricket North East Championship final 4

Boston University won vs LIU-Brooklyn

NYU-Polytechnic won vs NJ Institute of Technology

Rutgers won vs Northeastern

York College vs Princeton

NJIT and NYU-Polytechnic finished with a 1-1 record.

 

National Champions York College, Boston University,Harvard and Rutgers were undefeated and qualifed for the final four to be filmed by TV Asia. The date for the Semis & Finals will be confirmed, but is set for the weekend of Oct 27 & 28.

 

Harvard Cricket Club’s performance is particularly noteworthy as its one of the colleges that cricket was played at in the late 1700s and early 1800s. It established an official club in 1862 and played until the 1920s. Motivated by American College Cricket Ibrahim Khan restarted the club in 2011, and now its set to play on TV challenging for the Deryck Jodah Trophy !

 

Boston University is one of the 5 colleges that took part in the first American College Cricket Spring Break Championship (the Nationals) in 2009 whilst Rutgers won the first North East regional in 2010.

 

2012 National Champions York College also reached the 2010 Nationals Finals,after being started just a month before by Suleman Mohammed and Lloyd Jodah. 

Photos:

1 – Harvard Cricket team

2 – LIU – Brooklyn Blackbirds with Lloyd Jodah, American College Cricket President

3 – Princeton cricket team, with Lloyd Jodah

4 – Northeastern Huskies

4 - openers for Princeton                                                                                                    5 – Ibrahim Khan – Captain of Harvard Cricket Club