The Squamish Cricket Club has come a long way in a short time.
From its official, humble beginning in January, the team has recently donned new Squamish Taxi-sponsored uniforms and played its first home game at the Brennan Park fields against the NorthShore Cricket Club.
The team practices at Brennan Park, too.
Though they lost 254 runs to 135 on Aug. 20, the Squamish contingent was just happy to be playing.
"It was a great game," said Taurean McCarthy, the team's founding vice-president.
"It was actually quite a big defeat, but it was a great experience for everyone playing and also a really valuable learning experience for everyone as well. The team that we were playing, they have been playing regularly all season — like every weekend playing competitive games — so it was a bit of a mismatch. But it was still a lot of fun to play in."
A serendipitous aspect of the home game was one player had to drop out at the last minute, but another player’s 12-year-old son was on hand to fill the gap, McCarthy said.
"It was a great experience for him to be able to play a game as well.”
While it is new to Squamish, cricket is said to be the second most popular sport in the world, next to soccer. It is played in at least 120 countries, according to the International Cricket Council.
In B.C., and even in the Lower Mainland, McCarthy said there are plenty of teams for Squamish to play against.
"One of the directors of the club, he sent out about 24 emails to different clubs around the Lower Mainland looking for people to play friendlies against,” McCarthy said, with a chuckle.
The team has about 40 players registered in total, and there are 11 positions for the games.
The season runs from spring through to fall.
There are two main disciplines in cricket: one is bowling, and one is batting
The name of the cricket game is to score as many runs as possible against the opponent.
McCarthy said local businesses have stepped up with financial support, for which the club is grateful.
"Basically, it has been great, because it means that we will be around next year. We've got enough to basically see us through this year and then into next year as well. So it's a pretty exciting time."
Ultimately, the team would like a permanent pitch in Squamish where they could train and play games.
"It'd be in the middle of a field with a bit more open space around it," he said.
McCarthy said that they are also hoping to recruit more players.
"It's a nice team sport. Obviously, there's baseball that's already here in the summertime. But cricket is another one to add."
McCarthy said, in particular, that the team would like to sign up some newbies.
“One thing that we'd like to see is new players — people who are new to the sport. We have a lot of people with previous experience who have come down, though we've had a few new people as well. The majority of people have played before, so it'd be good to expose [the sport] to a few new people. And see if we can get the youth programs going as well."
Next, the team hopes to arrange a home game for Sept. 11.
Stay tuned to the Squamish Cricket Club Facebook page for details.
