BOUNC Cricket League brings international sport to UNC

As UNC students lined up outside of Dorrance Field for the men's soccer game on Saturday, a very different sport was being played to the left at Hooker Fields: cricket. 

This semester the BOUNC Cricket League was started by Muhammad Khan, the club's current president, and Ishan Joshi, the current treasurer, to give UNC students the opportunity to play a lesser-known sport in the U.S. 

Cricket is most famous in other parts of the world, especially India and Pakistan, and has a total of about 2.5 billion people watching the game across the globe. Yet, it is not as popular in America, making some UNC students with international ties miss one of their favorite sports.

“I come from India, and over there it's basically in our blood,” Atharv Chakole, chief technical officer of the club, said.

The club has members from India, Pakistan, England, Australia, Ireland, the Netherlands, Zimbabwe and the United States, diversifying the group of people who come together to learn and play the sport.

Bringing this sport to UNC was important for the club leaders, not only to allow students who are already familiar with the sport to play but also to inform others of its popularity and existence in general.

“We wanted to play more, and we wanted to bring cricket to an audience that thought it was just an insect,” Joshi said.

They meet weekly, alternating between practices where anyone who wants to can come and play and tournament games where players participate as teams with the final goal of winning a homemade BOUNC Cricket trophy.

Sometimes professional cricket matches can last for multiple days at a time, so club members are attempting to structure games into a much shorter format — only lasting 1-2 hours — to make it more accessible for players.

Saturday was the club's first day of games; almost 30 students gathered at Hooker Fields and split into teams to start playing against one another.

After a few minutes of getting warmed up, the game was on and the competition began. The pitcher swung his arm in a circle, throwing the small yellow ball at the opposing team's batter who tried to hit it with the wooden cricket bat.

The players ran between the bases, chased after hits and caught fly-balls in the air, attempting to get the opposing team out to score as many points for themselves as possible.

Atchuthan Rangarajan, a first year at UNC who just joined the club, was standing on the sidelines, observing the premiere game after he attended the group's first practice the week prior. Rangarajan was waiting for his turn to join the game — a sport he grew up watching with his parents, who are both from India. 

“I feel like a lot of my interests, in general, can be kind of niche and it can be hard to find other people, so seeing something like this that already exists is really exciting,” he said. 

Going forward, the club leaders hope that people will continue to come and play cricket to meet new people and understand more about the sport. So far, the club has been well-received by the UNC community. As it continues throughout the semester, club members hope that players can find enjoyment from playing each week.

“My favorite part, honestly, is that I get to play,” Chakole said. “It's been a long time since I've played, so this gets me excited, and I get to meet other people that are just interested in general.”

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