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Foreign sport finds home in Simi
Now, the gentlemen's sport that originated in England is taking root in Simi Valley. The Simi Sloggers—or "sluggers" in American vernacular—have been practicing on weekends at Sinaloa Middle School and at Rancho Santa Susana Community Park the past few years. In the past 10 months the Sloggers have officially become an actively competitive team in the Los Angeles Social Cricket Alliance league. The Sloggers also have an international flair. There are players from India, England, the West Indies, Pakistan and Guyana on the roster. About three years ago, cricket enthusiasts from Simi Valley got the idea to try to play together and formed what would eventually become the Sloggers. Mahmood Jadwet, a team captain, had been playing in the Inland Empire for about 15 years before gathering local players from Simi Valley.
According to Sloggers team president Steven Davies-Morris, there are probably around 60,000 to 75,000 people who play cricket around the U.S. He estimated that there are, on any given weekend, 2,500 to 5,000 people playing cricket in California. Florida, New York and Texas also are hotbeds for the game. Because they often can't play on a proper field in Simi Valley, the Sloggers often play a different form of cricket called tape ball—it's the equivalent of stickball for baseball. Instead of playing with a traditional cricket ball, which is much harder than a regular baseball, the Sloggers wrap a tennis ball with masking tape or other heavy tape. Hours of fun ensue. The Sloggers play games at Woodley Park in Van Nuys, which has four well-maintained regulation cricket fields and many other fields that can be used for cricket. The team is hoping, within the next few years, to jump into the more competitive Southern California Cricket Association while also retaining its social, recreational team. "People who watch that don't know about it stop and ask us. They get really interested," Jadwet said. "We want people to play. We are more than happy to teach anyone who wants to know how to play." Jadwet said he would like to expand the regular roster of 17 players to 25 cricketers. Jadwet, 54, was born in Burma and raised in India. He has lived in the U.S. for 25 years, the last 19 in Simi Valley. Davies-Morris, 49, was born in London and started playing cricket at 8. He remembers playing a game of cricket in an Orange County league at age 13 during his first visit to the United States. Just after he turned 15, Davies-Morris' mother, who was teaching in San Diego at the time, asked her son if he wanted to live in California. "It didn't take me more than 15 seconds to decide," DaviesMorris said with a laugh. He has lived in Southern California ever since and moved to Simi Valley in 2002. For Jadwet and DaviesMorris, cricket is a sport that is still challenging and exciting. "I enjoy the passion of the game, the technique and everything involved," said Jadwet, whose cousin, Asif Jadwet, is vice captain of the Sloggers. "The game itself is one of extraordinary subtlety and complexity," Davies-Morris said. "I think that it's the perfect amalgam, that within a team sport you have an ongoing set of individual contests." For more information about the Simi Sloggers, e-mail sdavmor@systemstheory.net. For more information on the Los Angeles Social Cricket Alliance, visit www.lasca.org. |
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