Cricket a growing sport in Saint John

Cricket has quietly been growing in Saint John and the Saint John Cricket Club is trying to increase its numbers.

The club was set up last year with the hope of being able to compete with other cities and provinces.

"Fredericton has three different clubs that play in a league," said Amit Tamrakar, the club's treasurer. "We have 10 members right now and we are trying to expand that as much as we can."

Tamrakar says cricket requires 11 players, along with two spares, to compete.

"If the club can grow, we can have more than one team in Saint John instead of going to Fredericton [to compete]."

The club spent the winter practicing indoors at the Nick Nicolle Centre and will be using the Hazen White field during the summer months, but finding a proper space to play cricket has been difficult.

"There's no field in Saint John that can work in terms of size that we need for cricket," he said. "[The field] is four times the size of a baseball field and most are rectangular or diamond shape ... No field is close to what we need."

However, Tamrakar says the Saint John Trojans Rugby Club has been working with them to ensure they have the right type of space to play. They are discussing the idea of expanding existing ground or building new ground to have both clubs play on the same field.

"Hopefully in the coming years we will have our own grounds here," he said.

Tamrakar says the club is trying to introduce as many people as possible to the sport, showing them how it's played and encouraging them to try it out.

"It's not difficult. It's very similar to baseball, but with different rules. There's a pitcher and hitter. As long as you get used to it, it's team play and it's a lot of fun.

"It's easy to learn as long as you're open to learning."
www.cbc.ca