As cricket grounds go, this is not what you would picture. Far from manicured, very rough in all the wrong places, and barely a quarter of the size a standard pitch would expectedly be. There are no deep covers, no short or fine leg. The leg gully or leg slip is more likely where you’ll find the batting team sitting and waiting for their chance.
And the cow covers? Maybe, but only in the sense that’s where they can hit the ball without it going into the river.
No, this is most definitely not what you would picture a cricket ground in Stratford to look like. But this is what you’ll find at the softball diamond just between the Avon River and Stratford Festival. And on most nights when the rough dirt infield isn’t being used to field grounders and shag fly balls, you’re going to see a group of guys who are making do to play the sport they love.
Gaurav Bhatt has a long and deep history with the sport. It is India’s version of what hockey is in this country for kids, and Bhatt began when he was just eight years old. There wasn’t the money to buy proper gear - he remembers only one customized bat and one rubber ball he and his friends would use while playing out matches in the street day and night. When he came to Canada in 2012, he left the game behind temporarily to better establish himself and his family in their new homeland.
But then it began to happen. He met a few who were just as mad for the sport, and that small handful began playing games in backyards. That’s where it began, progressing to the ball diamond at the river not long afterwards.
“It’s been hard playing there on that pitch but we have managed, but I’ve struggled to find committed players,” he said. “But then I started to reach out to all Indo-Asian community events in Stratford and I was prompting them to play cricket with us. Drop by drop, players started coming. I had to offer rides to those who couldn’t drive but still wanted to play.”
Right there tells you all you’re going to need to know about Bhatt’s passion for this. Never mind that he was willing to settle for a game on a baseball diamond that required some creativity to adjust to; Bhatt was going out and picking up players one by one. He’d leave his house around 4 p.m. to pick up players so they could begin two hours later. At one point, he had a WhatsApp group chat going with 42 players.
Somehow, dreams of cricket were taking hold in the softball dirt.
Pradeesh Pious followed his cricket dreams to Facebook when he moved into the area. He spotted a Stratford cricket group on the social media giant and was once again able to take part. But it wasn’t exactly the same - there were some adjustments that needed to be made.
Instead of having a complete 360-degree pitch to play on, these guys get a narrower field to bat to in front of them, a softball backstop behind them to keep wayward bowls from making their way into the Festival’s parking lot, and a few other quirky features. Pious said that the grounds are temporary but, oddly, helpful.
“Every player in our group dreams about having a 360-degree ground one day with proper turf, but the beauty of cricket is that we can make some adjustments to the game based on how many players and the area that is available to us,” he said. “As a growing community in Stratford and with most of us working here, we hope that the city will make an effort to acknowledge our recreational needs - our goal is to have at least one player in the future from Stratford on the international team, but this might only be possible from our next generation if we are equipped to deliver proper support to the young ones.”
The group has bounced around some of the city’s other ball diamonds as well in their attempt to find a more permanent home. Hardeep Heer said he and some friends joined up with Bhatt about three years ago and remembers being booted off some of those diamonds. It’s a slow process to find a new spot - perhaps even slower to change enough minds. But even as they play in the shadow of the Festival at the corner of Queen Street and Lakeside Drive, all Heer and his mates need to do to see change is look to the east and beyond a soccer field that stands between them and the spot where the Festival’s cricket team is setting up shop with a more permanent solution.
“We are all pumped to have a proper pitch in place so we can all have proper games to play and to help groom newer generations,” he said. “The baseball diamond is not meant for cricket but we have made adjustments to our game - we use tennis balls for good bounces, and we’ve made new rules for scoring since we’re limited with the field.”
This has been Part 1 of 2 - Part 2 will appear Saturday, Aug. 31.
