Green River attracts students with Cricket

By SHAWN SKAGER
Auburn Reporter Sports Reporter

Ankit Panchal is perfectly happy now with his life in the United States.For more than a year the international student from the Indian state of Gujarat has been enrolled in the Green River Community College air traffic control program.

“It’s pretty good here,” Panchal, 19, said. “Everything is different here. The way people are, the way they treat us.

But until last April, something was missing. For most of his life Panchal has followed and played cricket, the national sport of India.

“In India, each and every kid, almost 100 percent play,” Panchal said. “In the streets or on a field, every school, every city has a team. Every state and every village has a team, right up to the Indian national team.”

Until 2009, Panchal has had no outlet for his love of cricket.

But that all changed, courtesy of Dr. Barry Bannister, Green River’s Director of International Development.

Bannister, a native Australian, also grew up playing and following cricket. After several years working in international education in Southeast Asia, India and the Middle East, including stints at colleges in Kuwait and Hong Kong, Bannister found himself in Auburn.

Last year Bannister was a part of a contingent of Green River administrators in India exploring the possibility of attracting students to Green River.

“When we were there at this time last year, I was there with the vice president of the international program, and one night after dinner I said, ‘We’re going shopping,’ ” Bannister said. “And I bought two cricket kits. When we got back, I had a couple of Indian boys come up and say, ‘I heard you have some cricket gear.’ ”

One of those boys was Panchal.

“Barry Bannister, he brought some equipment, and he asked me if I played,” Panchal said. “And we decided to make a team. So I asked a couple of friends.”

Soon, the club sport, with Panchal as president, attracted enough players to form a team and join the Northwest Cricket League (NCL).

Although this year’s squad featured international students only, Bannister said he hoped to entice other students to try out this season.

Panchal said that the skills necessary to play the game well aren’t hard to acquire if the athlete is willing to put in the work.

“If you play a game every week and practice and join a team … it’s the same as learning baseball.”

In addition to providing international students already at the school a chance to play their national sport, Bannister said the school was using the sport as a draw for future students.

“We’re flooding India with this at the moment,” he said. “We’re telling them, you can come to the U.S., which is where they all want to come, and go to school and play cricket.

“Because cricket is the national sport of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, it’s a natural to draw international students to the school,” he said. “It’s also a tool to attract and retain students.”

GRCC Cricket Team.