“Play ball!” Manchester Mayor Jay Moran yelled with a laugh at the referee as his small scissors failed to cut the golden ribbon during the ceremony to officially open the town’s first cricket field in the center of Robertson Park on Thursday evening.
The field was on the city’s agenda for a while. It was important for Moran to open the city’s arms to new cultures and interests. Over the last 20 years, Manchester and surrounding towns have seen an increase in residents from countries such as India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, where cricket is popular.
Between 2000 and 2010, the Asian Pacific American population in Connecticut increased by 65 percent. Connecticut’s Asian Pacific population is 147,830, which is 4 percent of the total Connecticut population, according to the state’s Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission, an agency created by the state legislature in 2008.
“Every summer morning, I’d been watching people play cricket. I’d gotten close with the Bangladesh and Indian communities in the town, and they came, a couple years ago, and said to me, ‘We really need a cricket field,’ so we took it to the general manager,” he said.
Cricket is the world’s second-most popular sport after soccer.
Manchester general manager Scott Shanley talked about rising to the challenge of building during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Finding a location for something this size is not easy, and we’re pleased it’s come out so nicely,” he said. “It came in under the $350,000 budget because of the work [the town engineering and public works departments] completed on their own.”
In addition to the field and large, round, grassy area for fans, there is a gravel track to give the area another purpose.
The area used to house a softball field named after the late Journal Inquirer sports editor Randy Smith and a skate park. Not everyone was thrilled about the destruction, as softball is one of the larger traditional sports in the area, but after several years of planning and hard work between the town’s engineering and public works departments, it was transformed.
The two teams that will share the field, the Bengal Cricket Club and Hartford County Cricket Club, opened the field with an exhibition for the crowd of about 50 people in attendance. Prior to the opening, the teams — part of the Connecticut Cricket League — played at local high schools. Moran said the cricket field not only gives them a home but easier access to game play, as well. There will be less competition between groups on who gets to use what and when.
“I’d like to thank the town for giving us a home, which we never had,” Bengals Cricket Club team captain Shovon Issa said. “Not everyone knows this game, but I want everyone to love it.”
Hartford County Cricket Club team captain Usman Chaudhry said, for the players, cricket runs in their blood. It is something Pakistani players like himself were born into.
“To me, it shows that, in Manchester, we appreciate many different cultures and we are welcoming to immigrants and their families, and that’s more important than the game itself,” Moran said.
