Cricket Clubs Grow in Northern Virginia

by Alex Koma

For most Virginians, they’ve only seen cricket on episodes of “Downtown Abbey.” But local players are bringing the popular British game to sports fields across Northern Virginia.

Thirty-eight teams currently compete in the Washington Cricket League, including the Washington Titans, based in Woodbridge.

“There’s definitely an interest in cricket in this area,” said Bilal Javed, team captain of the Titans. “There are a lot of immigrants from Pakistan, India, the Caribbean, England, Australia in the area, so people pick up on this sport from their countries, and they come to the U.S. and they see people playing here, they just join.”

Yet, for the league’s growing popularity, the sight of the game still strikes onlookers as unusual.

One passerby at Woodbridge’s Veterans Field was heard asking “What is that sport?” as the Titans competed on one Sunday afternoon.

But despite the public’s lack of awareness, the WCL has existed since 1974 and now boasts nearly 1,400 active members.

“(Prince William) county alone has five teams that play in this county and we have two fields,” said Shoaib Ahmed, president of the WCL and a member of the Titans.  “Beside that, we have teams in Fairfax, we have teams in Loudon, we have a lot of teams in the Washington D.C. area.”

The league’s size may seem surprising, but many of its members first encountered it through a strong internet presence and simple word of mouth.

“A bunch of us immigrants used to play after high school, but once we all graduated, we heard about this league,” said Nihant Bondugula, manager of Centreville’s Dulles Cricket Club. “We found the WCL through their big website and we saw how organized and competitive the cricket is in this area.”

Over the last three years, under Ahmed’s leadership as president, the league has added eight teams, and it’s looking to expand in other ways as well.

“We’ve reached out to local schools and started a youth program,” Ahmed said. “We are trying to introduce a model like what soccer started, we are taking baby steps, but we’re making a lot of progress.”

The WCL is even starting to gain national recognition for its development.

“WCL is rated one of the top five leagues in the U.S., and some of the players who play in the WCL have represented the country on the U.S. national cricket team,” Javed said.

Despite the sport’s growing local profile, many still see the sport as an oddity.

“When you tell people it’s played in 90 or 100 degree weather for six or seven hours, they normally laugh at you, but we’re used to it,” Bondugula said.

But for members of the WCL, cricket is more than simply an odd pastime or a niche sport: it’s an addiction.

“I think it’s like a love affair,” Javed said. “You’re passionate about it, you want to play it over and over, and you’re just addicted to it. That’s exactly what makes you come back to it again and again.”