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I’m not really sure how I feel about playing cricket this season. Last year, I was extremely gung ho about getting into the New Jersey scene having spent the previous summer in England. In the winter of 2009, I ran 3 miles a day and lifted weights four days a week in preparation to play a full season of club cricket on Saturdays and Sundays. Unfortunately, I discovered that if you are white, American-born, and do not claim to have any Australian, South African, English or Kiwi heritage, it is hard to get a game in America. After playing 23 games of decent standard club cricket in England during the summer of 2008, I played a total of four games in 2009, not through any lack of skill or lack of availability either. The greatest insult came late in the summer when my now former club had 10 players, including myself, who made themselves available for selection for a match. Yet, I was not selected to play on Sunday. Instead, two players who had removed themselves from being available due to injury were cajoled by the captain into playing so that the captain would not have to pick me. When people like this are in leadership positions, it’s no wonder why cricket is outside the perimeter of American sports culture.

In the first part of 2010, I’ve been occupied traveling around the world covering the USA national teams. Unfortunately, it means I haven’t really had a proper chance to train and I haven’t touched a bat since January. However, I started training again last week. After waiting forever, I finally decided to pick up the phone on Tuesday to call a contact to see if he would be interested in having me join his club this year. He mentioned something about a possible trial match this weekend. It’ll be interesting to see how things turn out.

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