Country Roads Take Lloyd To West Virginia, National Champion !
West Virginia President Dr Gordon Gee, with Lloyd and the WVU cricket team
Lloyd has occasionally sung ‘Country Road Take Me Home’, the beautiful song by John Denver from 1971, which has since become the official state song of West Virginia. However on a recent quick visit, he didn’t actually sing the song, as his throat was sick !
Nevertheless it was a great visit that started with WVU Captain Sai Satish showing Lloyd around the campus, particularly the spaces where the team practiced – there were 4, smack bang in the middle of everything so the game was very visible to WVU students: the athletic track, which had a pitch like strip in the middle, the turf soccer field which was beautiful, and the ‘Shell’, a huge indoor facility which they got for 4 hours twice a week for hardball practice during winter. The 4th was the large Rec Ctr which is used for tennis or tape ball cricket like the recent Intra murals – cricket is now an Intra mural sport at West Virginia U.
Lloyd also saw the various Engineering buildings, Library, dorms etc and rode the automated rail system (PRT) students used to get around the 3 campuses. Morgantown itself is small, with just 30,000 full time residents.
After the rail ride was the meeting with West Virginia President Dr E Gordon Gee, one of the most illustrious college Presidents for decades. Dr Gee’s connection to American College Cricket began in Sept 2010 when he attended the 1st Regional, the Mid West, and agreed to have that Trophy named after him. Romel Somavat, then Ohio State cricket club Preisdent had invited Dr Gee. Accomplishments like that earned Romel his place in the American College Cricket Hall of Fame. From then Dr Gee has also been a member of our Advisory Board. Dr Gee was very gracious and hospitable with Lloyd and the team, chatting and taking pictures. The Trophy, an American College Cricket shirt and ball were presented to him.
When Dr Gee asked how he could help further, Satish asked for an abandoned baseball stadium to be re purposed for cricket.
The SHELL
