All you need to know about cricket, London’s new favourite sport

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As London population of immigrants grows, so does the popularity of what would otherwise be a niche sport here – cricket. At the forefront for the past two decades is Subhash Sharma, president of the Forest City Riders Cricket Club and part of the Big Bash London League. He spoke with The Free Press about everything Londoners need to know

A GAME HE LOVES

Sharma says there are two cricket leagues in London, including the Big Bash London League. He estimates there are 1,300 players in the city in total.

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He started playing the sport as a teenager in India, where he says “cricket is not a game, it’s a religion” – something that might sound familiar to hockey players who grew up in Canada. Sharma went on to play for his university’s team, and competed at the state level in India before moving to London two decades ago.

CRICKET IN LONDON

This history of cricket in London is believed to go back to at least 1856, when the London Cricket Club was formed. In recent years, the sport has experienced ballooning popularity in the city, which Sharma attributes to London’s growing population and the sport’s popularity with immigrants from countries where it’s most popular such as India and West Indies.

Now in its second year, the Big Bash London League is one of two cricket leagues in London. It consists of 10 teams, each with a roster of around 30 players. According to Sharma, most of the Big Bash’s roughly 350 players come from countries other than Canada.

The biggest influx of new players have been international students from countries where cricket is especially popular, Sharma said. Live broadcasts of the International Cricket Council Men’s T20 World Cup in June also juiced up interest in the sport.

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“That’s one of the reasons that youngsters took to this game,” Sharma said. “It was very widely telecast across North America.”

The World Cup was the first ICC tournament to feature games hosted in North America, and Sharma says the broadcasts were able to draw more interest being in a time zone close to London.

CRICKET: LIKE BASEBALL, BUT NOT

While the rules of cricket are complex, Sharma breaks down some of the basics of how the game is played.

Cricket is played with a bat and ball between two teams of 11 players. A cricket field is oval-shaped with a rectangular area in the middle known as the pitch. At each end of the pitch are three stumps with bails placed between them.

A coin toss decides which team will bat or bowl.

The main objective of the game is to score more runs than the opposing team. In T20 cricket, a game ends after each team bats 20 overs, or when all batters have been knocked out of the game. An “over” in cricket consists of six balls bowled to the batter. The batsman can either leave the ball, play a defensive stroke or hit the ball. It is not necessary to run after each hit.

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If the bowler can dislodge the stumps with the ball, the batsman is declared out. Similar to baseball, a batter can be out when a catch is taken. There are 10 ways a batsman can be out.

During an over, the batting team has two players positioned on opposite ends of the pitch: a striker hitting balls bowled by the opposing team, and a non-striker. Runs are scored when the striker and non-striker successfully switch positions on the pitch, or by hitting the ball to the boundary of the field. The batting team gains six runs if the ball lands outside the boundary of the field. If the ball hits the ground then bounces over the boundary, it counts as four runs.

The length of a cricket game varies depending on the format, taking place over five days in a Test match. The Big Bash London League primarily follows the T20 format of cricket and games typically last around four hours.

WHERE TO PLAY

Per city hall’s website, there are three cricket pitches in London: North London Athletic Field, Northridge Fields and Silverwood Park. At Northridge, city hall recently provided two black side screens for the cricket pitch, prompted by safety concerns raised by Sharma.

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“It’s a safety hazard if you don’t have a side screen because the ball gets lost in the background,” Sharma said. “It can get messy . . . getting hit by a ball traveling about 100 kilometres (an hour).” The black screens are designed to contrast with the colour of the cricket ball so players have better visibility, which can avoid injury, according to Sharma.

Many London cricketers opt for tapeball, a safer version of the game played with a tennis ball instead of a traditional cricket ball.

THE FUTURE OF CRICKET IN LONDON

Sharma commends the city for being the first municipality in Southwestern Ontario to provide side screens for use in cricket, and hopes the city will continue to support the sport.

As the sport grows in London, Sharma is pushing for the addition of dedicated cricket fields, with grass maintained in accordance with international cricket standards. He also notes a need for improved access to bathrooms at city fields.

One of Sharma’s favourite things about cricket is its capacity to foster community. He describes a cricket team as a group of people with expertise in different areas who must learn to work together.

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“It develops camaraderie and understanding,” he said. “There are so many different faculties of the game and so many intricacies involved. . . . All of (the players) have to gel together in order to make a fantastic cricket team.”

For Sharma, continuing to advocate for cricket in London is his way of giving back to the game that has taught him so much. From coaching new players to pushing the city for better facilities, the sports rise in popularity in the city is no fluke, he said.

“When I see youngsters coming over here to play . . . that encourages me, that excites me.”

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