UIS to send Cricket Club to national competition

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND) — The University of Illinois Springfield Cricket Club will get the opportunity to compete nationally in March.

The team will compete against 24 other college and university teams from around the country at the National College Cricket Association (NCCA) nationals March 16-19 in Houston, Texas.

The UIS team, which finished second in the NCCA Midwest Regionals in Chicago, will compete against prestigious universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Drexel, and UCLA.

“I’m really excited to go there,” said Harsh Panchal, a UIS graduate student from India who plays on the team. “We have been waiting for a long time.”

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players. The game, which originated in England, is also popular in India, Australia, Bangladesh, South Africa, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and New Zealand. It's been making inroads into the United States and is being considered as an Olympic sport.

“A lot of people who have an appreciation for baseball also like cricket,” said Parag Sachdeva, a UIS graduate student from India and team member. “People who have not grown up with the sport have learned how exciting it can be.”

The UIS Cricket Club started in 2015. The team was dormant for several years until Sachdeva and Panchal got it going again in 2021. Both played cricket in India but didn’t speak the same language when they first met. Still, the sport brought them together.

“Cricket, beyond just the sport, is like a community. It’s something beyond anything else,” Sachdeva said.

The team practices using parts of the UIS pitch, located between the Prairie Stars baseball field and the women’s soccer practice field. Club members also recently started to practice at the Tribe Baseball and Softball Academy indoor facility in Springfield.

“We’re excited to play in the nationals and plan to be ready,” Sachdeva said.

Besides Sachdeva and Panchal, other squad members include Nikilesh Mallak, Anvesh Reddy, Bhavani Subhash Addala, Sai Chandu, Rahul Yadav, Randhir Bhosale, Farjad Khan, Jolif Rathod, Rushi Patel, Hemanth Pendam, Jaswanth Bharadwaj and Chandra Yadamreddy.