+
upworthy
Most Shared

Think cricket's just for stodgy British types? Think again.

True
DICK'S Sporting Goods

When Neeraj Kher came to live in the United States, he thought he’d made a mistake. He couldn’t find any cricket.

He had always been a cricket player. Born in New Delhi, India, he had learned the sport young, and then lived in two other cricket-playing countries, Australia and England.

But then, he settled in Newport, New Jersey, in 2011 for work and to be closer to his sister.


“The first year here I almost went into depression,” Kher says. He thought, “I can’t live here. I have to go back to England or Australia.”

Luckily, one day while driving past a Target store, he saw a man “wearing whites” — traditional cricket-playing clothing. Kher pulled over and approached the man to ask where he’d played cricket that day.

Kher was surprised to learn there was a massive cricket organization serving the greater New York metro area called the Commonwealth Cricket League.

A group of Commonwealth Cricket League members. Photo courtesy of Columbia Cricket Club.

The Commonwealth Cricket League has more than 70 teams with players as diverse as the city and its outlying area.

But then again, perhaps it’s not actually that strange to think the sport would be beloved across the tri-state area. After all, cricket is played in more than a hundred different countries, and that section of the Northeast is home to well over 5 million immigrants.

Kher quickly began playing for the nearby Hoboken Cricket Club, a team in the CCL. And today, he serves as the team’s vice president, working side-by-side with its founder and president Darragh Dempsey, an Irishman.

“What I really like about the CCL is that you don’t have to be from a specific background to play,” says Kher.

League games give people a chance to become friends with players, their families, and fans from all around the world.

According to Kher, there are other cricket leagues in the area that only cater to people from individual countries, aimed at strengthening bonds within their particular immigrant communities. But in the CCL, “As long as you have 11 players who are committed ... you can play in the league,” he says.

The players set a beautiful tone of inclusion — willing to put aside bitter sports-based rivalries originating in their respective homelands.

Kher and fellow teammate hold a Last Man Stands trophy for cricket. Photo via Kher.

“Given that I’m from India, we have a huge rivalry with Pakistan,” Kher says. On the field of play, Kher admits those in the CCL are highly competitive, but off the field, he says, “there’s no anger, or animosity; there’s no turf war, nothing like that.”

That said, cricket has faced challenges catching on in the majority of the United States.

Traditional cricket games can span three to five days, though there’s a shorter version where games last about six hours. Such lengthy gameplay can make it virtually impossible for working-class people to get into cricket, even though less equipment is required for a contest, compared to the likes of hockey or golf.

Moreover, the weather experienced by much of the U.S. means cricket can’t be played year-round, which obviously isn’t the case in the warmer, cricket-crazed regions across Africa and Southeast Asia.

Still, the highly inclusive CCL is growing, and many in the league are taking action to expand it further to ensure its future.

Kher's team on a trip to Guyana. Photo via Kher.

Kher’s Hoboken Cricket Club has done local outreach and set up camps where children can learn the sport. He’s sure that there will be interest in the sport, even with communities that have had less exposure to it, like the local Hispanic community.

“We want to send invites to local baseball clubs, so they can come, see the game, and learn the game,” Kher says. Like many others, he believes baseball enthusiasts might find joy in cricket, as the two sports share similar characteristics.

Cricket itself is also evolving, becoming far more exciting than ever. Over the course of the past decade, an even shorter version of cricket — called T20 — has taken hold, with games lasting about as long as a baseball game.The contests are action-packed, with players taking more risks with fewer opportunities to score. Some speculate this incarnation could help cricket gain greater fandom in the U.S., offering opportunities for cultures once separated by oceans to find common ground.

A day at the cricket field can be enjoyed by anyone who loves sports, no matter their cultural background.

Members of CCL hanging out on the field. Photo courtesy of Columbia Cricket Club.

The feel-good atmosphere is built on traditions reminiscent of those at football, baseball, or soccer games. Barbecue and all sorts of food and drinks are staples at cricket games — some of which have built-in breaks for chowing down and socializing.

So if you ever stumble upon a game of cricket, chances are you’ll be treated to a fun, educational experience that was once nonexistent in America. And if you run into an enthusiastic player and fan like Kher, you’ll no doubt leave the field with your curiosity peaked.

Dicks Sporting Goods - Cricket

All over the world, people are connecting over this sport.

Posted by Upworthy on Friday, February 23, 2018

This story was produced as part of a campaign called "17 Days" with DICK'S Sporting Goods. These stories aim to shine a light on real occurrences of sports bringing people together.

Correction 2/28/2018: Photo captions have been updated to correct identification.

Planet

Easy (and free!) ways to save the ocean

The ocean is the heart of our planet. It needs our help to be healthy.

Ocean Wise

Volunteers at a local shoreline cleanup

True

The ocean covers over 71% of the Earth’s surface and serves as our planet’s heart. Ocean currents circulate vital heat, moisture, and nutrients around the globe to influence and regulate our climate, similar to the human circulatory system. Cool, right?

Our ocean systems provide us with everything from fresh oxygen to fresh food. We need it to survive and thrive—and when the ocean struggles to function healthfully, the whole world is affected.

Pollution, overfishing, and climate change are the three biggest challenges preventing the ocean from doing its job, and it needs our help now more than ever. Humans created the problem; now humans are responsible for solving it.

#BeOceanWise is a global rallying cry to do what you can for the ocean, because we need the ocean and the ocean needs us. If you’re wondering how—or if—you can make a difference, the answer is a resounding YES. There are a myriad of ways you can help, even if you don’t live near a body of water. For example, you can focus on reducing the amount of plastic you purchase for yourself or your family.

Another easy way to help clean up our oceans is to be aware of what’s known as the “dirty dozen.” Every year, scientists release an updated list of the most-found litter scattered along shorelines. The biggest culprit? Single-use beverage and food items such as foam cups, straws, bottle caps, and cigarette butts. If you can’t cut single-use plastic out of your life completely, we understand. Just make sure to correctly recycle plastic when you are finished using it. A staggering 3 million tons of plastic ends up in our oceans annually. Imagine the difference we could make if everyone recycled!

The 2022 "Dirty Dozen" ListOcean Wise

If you live near a shoreline, help clean it up! Organize or join an effort to take action and make a positive impact in your community alongside your friends, family, or colleagues. You can also tag @oceanwise on social if you spot a beach that needs some love. The location will be added to Ocean Wise’s system so you can submit data on the litter found during future Shoreline Cleanups. This data helps Ocean Wise work with businesses and governments to stop plastic pollution at its source. In Canada, Ocean Wise data helped inform a federal ban on unnecessary single-use plastics. Small but important actions like these greatly help reduce the litter that ends up in our ocean.

Ocean Wise, a conservation organization on a mission to restore and protect our oceans, is focused on empowering and educating everyone from individuals to governments on how to protect our waters. They are making conservation happen through five big initiatives: monitoring and protecting whales, fighting climate change and restoring biodiversity, innovating for a plastic-free ocean, protecting and restoring fish stocks, and finally, educating and empowering youth. The non-profit believes that in order to rebuild a resilient and vibrant ocean within the next ten years, everyone needs to take action.

Become an Ocean Wise ally and share your knowledge with others. The more people who know how badly the ocean needs our help, the better! Now is a great time to commit to being a part of something bigger and get our oceans healthy again.

Innovation

A student accidentally created a rechargeable battery that could last 400 years

"This thing has been cycling 10,000 cycles and it’s still going." ⚡️⚡️

There's an old saying that luck happens when preparation meets opportunity.

There's no better example of that than a 2016 discovery at the University of California, Irvine, by doctoral student Mya Le Thai. After playing around in the lab, she made a discovery that could lead to a rechargeable battery that could last up to 400 years. That means longer-lasting laptops and smartphones and fewer lithium ion batteries piling up in landfills.

Keep ReadingShow less

How anger and irritability can disguise depression

Anger is such a weird emotion and it's totally not anger's fault. It's just existing for valid reasons but shows up when we feel like it shouldn't. The thing with anger is that in many cases it acts as a coat for an underlying emotion hiding that for some reason or another isn't ready to be revealed.

But sometimes anger is hiding something bigger than a fleeting emotion. Emma McAdam, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and host of the YouTube channel, Therapy in a Nutshell, posted a video explaining how anger and irritability can actually be a symptom of depression.

The video really breaks down how the media portrays depression versus some of the lesser known symptoms of depression. When people think of depression, they often imagine someone that's extremely sad all the time and struggling to do basic skills. But depression can show up hidden behind other symptoms like irritability, insomnia, loss of appetite, and lack of focus.

Keep ReadingShow less
Science

Researchers dumped tons of coffee waste into a forest. This is what it looks like now.

30 dump truck loads and two years later, the forest looks totally different.

One of the biggest problems with coffee production is that it generates an incredible amount of waste. Once coffee beans are separated from cherries, about 45% of the entire biomass is discarded.

So for every pound of roasted coffee we enjoy, an equivalent amount of coffee pulp is discarded into massive landfills across the globe. That means that approximately 10 million tons of coffee pulp is discarded into the environment every year.

Keep ReadingShow less

How to end hunger, according to the people who face it daily

Here’s what people facing food insecurity want you to know about solving the hunger problem in America

Even though America is the world’s wealthiest nation, about 1 in 6 of our neighbors turned to food banks and community programs in order to feed themselves and their families last year. Think about it: More than 9 million children faced hunger in 2021 (1 in 8 children).

In order to solve a problem, we must first understand it. Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, released its second annual Elevating Voices: Insights Report and turned to the experts—people experiencing hunger—to find out how this issue can be solved once and for all.

Here are the four most important things people facing hunger want you to know.

Keep ReadingShow less

An ambulance, a Waffle House and an angry bison.

While the United States is undeniably one of the most culturally dominant countries in the world, its depth and complexity go far beyond what most people understand before seeing it for themselves.

The U.S. is a melting pot of diverse cultures, histories and landscapes, creating a rich and complex national tapestry that takes time and travel to truly comprehend. Heck, even Americans ourselves have a hard time understanding each other from time to time.

It's a place where every state can feel like its own little world, each with its own traditions, accents and cuisines. So, it’s understandable that when many people from around the world visit for the first time, there are some things they probably wished they had known ahead of time.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Service dog flunks out of training school in spectacular fashion

The other dogs can't believe what they are seeing.

Double H Canine Academy in Louisville, Kentucky is a place where dog owners can take their rambunctious pets and have them turned into respectable members of the family.

However, as you can tell in this hilarious video, not all dogs are meant to follow orders.

Keep ReadingShow less