About 50 students met Wednesday to learn the techniques of batting, bowling, and scoring from members of the Schenectady-based Upstate New York Cricket Association. And in the process they got to know the local Guyanese community.
Teresa Meade, the Florence B. Sherwood Professor of History and Culture, began the event three years ago as part of her course on the history of the Caribbean.
"I felt it was important for students to learn about a significant Caribbean population in our own area,” she said. “A cricket match has been a fun way of introducing students to the contributions of Caribbean Guyanese people to the Capital District."
Union’s newest cricket players came from four classes: Film and Modern India, and Global Indians (Rajashree Mazumder, assistant professor of history); Latinos/as in U.S. History (Meade); and Sport, Society and Culture (George Gmelch, professor of anthropology).
Cricket is the second most popular game in the world, with 2.5 billion fans mainly in South Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the West Indies, Meade said. Although a cricket club has been in existence in Schenectady since the 1980's, it grew in importance with the arrival of large numbers of Guyanese immigrants in the late 1990's.
After a couple of hours on "the pitch" (Bailey Field), students and instructors enjoyed a meal of Indian food at Breazzano House.