Indiana University is promoting cricket on its campus

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NEW YORK – At Indiana University – Purdue Indianapolis (IUPUI), 21 undergraduate students joined certified international cricket coach Jatin Patel in monitoring cricket lessons in effort to promote the sport in the United States.

Patel, who holds Cricket Australia and many other soccer coaching credentials in the U.S., introduced this program at IUPUI in 2013 and since then IUPUI has been organizing the coaching certification program “Basics of Cricket” every year, according to a press release.

The students in the program which uses USYCA youth cricket sets and the American Cricket Federation cricket coaching certification program, are being educated in cricket by Sandy Barnett of the Indiana University Department of Kinesiology who is also the Physical Education Lecturer for the IU School of Physical Education and Tourism Management.

In the fall semester, students get basic practical cricket lessons, including how to throw the ball in the field and catch it, how to run between the wickets, how to bowl, play strokes, perform wicket-keeping and what would be the proper use of batting crease, so they are able to participate in field sessions at the end of the semester.

Patel explains to the students how cricket and baseball are similar in ways that the batter in baseball is known as the batsman in cricket and the pitcher in baseball is knows as the bowler in cricket, but most importantly he tells them that cricket is the most popular game in the world but a lot of developed countries do not play the game.

Both boys and girls displayed their bowling and batting skills with confidence as they initially used tennis balls and youth sized bats before being introduced to the wooden cricket bat and the colored and white leather balls which are used for day and day-night cricket matches.

Patel also showed them the safety equipment for the game including the helmet, pads, gloves, thigh and arm pads and more.

Indiana is the only state in U.S. which currently has such a program to educate college students about cricket through the cricket coach education program, which has been introduced to five different colleges and universities, with prime focus to develop future primary education program for schools based on simple concept “how physical education teachers and coaches would like to understand the game and how they are willing to teach future scholars.”

Meanwhile, USA Cricket has announced a number of zonal volunteer positions in the areas of performance, participation and membership with a view to continue to build the new USA Cricket.

“As we look to expand our reach and deliver various activities within the community, local support will be helpful to realize the potential of these initiatives across the country,” said USA Cricket.

USA Cricket’s intention is to employ both full-time and part-time staff in the near future in the Zones, however, “we feel it is important to hire such paid staff under the leadership of the newly elected Board and those roles will help to bridge the gap until USA Cricket can hire people for these positions.”

USA Cricket has introduced the cricket coach education program in efforts to promote the game of cricket in the United States as the International Cricket Council (ICC) has wanted to streamline the sport in the U.S.