The red, low sun treads in the blue sky, in no hurry to sink behind Hunt Library. A gang of students stretch lazily on the Cut, meticulously wrapping their bats with tape, talking about the dread of physics finals and the sweet relief of Carnival parties. A tennis ball substitutes for the real thing, lest a Cyert window get taken out by a fly ball. No, this isn't a pickup baseball game. And the students' sports heroes never played for the Yankees, Phillies, Red Sox, or Pirates. It's Sachin "The Little Master" Tendulkar who means something to these boys.
Aayush Kumar, a junior computer science major from New Delhi, India, takes cuts at the air with his bat, which looks more like a long aerodynamic paddle. He mimics the signature swing of The Little Master, a cricket legend. The ones and zeros of binary code and programming homework float away on the whooshing winds of each swing. The smell of spring is heavy in the air, and there are so many paddle-looking bats being swung that an uninitiated passerby might think this is preparation for some Animal House-style fraternity hazing ritual.
The scene takes Kumar back to his childhood, when his gang of friends would rush to the streets after school for pickup games. "In India, cricket is almost like a religion," he says, comparing it to America's obsession with baseball in the early to mid-20th century. "Imagine 1 billion people all in love with one sport." The packed city of New Delhi presented challenges for a young Kumar and his pals. "We would play anywhere we could-a park, a parking lot, even on the streets."
No surprise that Kumar is president of the university's cricket club, which includes an ever-changing roster of students from all over the world. "There aren't many cricket grounds near Pittsburgh, so we usually practice on the Cut, which reminds me of playing street cricket in India." Although the team's modest accommodations have a Bad News Bears feel, the club makes up for its meager budget with feverish passion. "Two years ago, we started driving to other schools like Penn and Wooster on weekends," Kumar says. "This at least got us practice with a hard ball and real equipment."
Homework was done in hotel rooms and the backseats of cars. During spring break last year, the team even journeyed to south Florida for the first-ever collegiate cricket tournament in the United States. Five teams competed. The Tartans finished as joint runners-up. Last fall, they finished third at the American College Cricket's Big 10 Midwestern Championship at Ohio State University.
But for Kumar, there is something more important than wins and losses. "Sixty years ago, maybe some freshmen got together to play baseball on the Cut and strangers became friends," he says. "Now it's happening for international students with cricket. The first time a freshman arrives at school and sees a cricket match being played, it's priceless to see their faces."
