Cricket is a fast-growing sport at Malden High School that teaches teamwork, focus, and quick thinking. Cricket is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of eleven players. The aim is to score runs between wickets or hit the ball between the boundaries.
Matches can range from a few hours to several days. Cricket is hugely popular in many countries around the world, originating in England in the sixteenth century. A few students have created their own team to bring cricket to Malden High School.
Ahmad Ghani is Malden High’s all-rounder. Ghani grew up playing cricket in Pakistan. He learned the game in his neighborhood with his brothers and friends. A neighbor showed him the basics when he was very young. He started playing when he was eight, and now he is seventeen.
As for technique, he bats right-handed and bowls right-arm spin, and most of his practice comes from playing with his friends on weekends. He gathers ten to fifteen players to work on their batting and bowling simultaneously. Ghani said one of the crucial things in maintaining his passion for cricket is encouraging his friends to play with him, often “knocking at their door and telling them, let’s go play cricket.”
Umar Ghani is Malden High’s opener, one of the two batsmen who start the innings and face the new ball to aim to give the team a strong start. He grew up playing cricket back in his country, Pakistan. He started playing when he was young, also at around eight years old, and is now seventeen as well, and he still plays whenever he can.
He bats right-handed and says batting comes more easily to him than bowling, so he prefers batting. Back at home, he practiced up to three hours a day, but here he mainly plays on weekends. Moving from playing in a small place to a big stadium was hard at first, he said, but after a few months of regular practice, he became more confident in big games.
Cricket is a sport that can bring everyone together; it helps students to make new friends and enjoy working towards a common goal. From playing in the street to facing world top bowlers in a big stadium, for some players, cricket is not just a sport; it’s an emotion. Come watch cricket practices and games to see just how easily a ball and bat can create a bond.
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