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Junior Sair Sheikh wakes up early every Saturday, eats breakfast, and heads out to his local baseball field. However, instead of getting his bat ready for baseball, he steps up to the crease and readies himself for the bowler’s delivery.
Sheikh, a junior, has been watching and playing cricket with his friends and family from a young age. After entering high school, he noticed that cricket here at Rock Ridge wasn’t recognized as an official VHSL sport. He decided to try to change that by inspiring others to join the Cricket Club on cardinal days at Rock Ridge, while also talking to other schools about starting a cricket club. His goal is simple: create a community where anyone can play cricket.
Cricket has grown significantly in popularity these past few years, especially in the US, and Sheikh has been motivated to show his peers what the world’s second most popular sport can offer “[I want] to encourage [potential members], I show them lessons, and because cricket is also similar to baseball, I can show how it’s similar. Some kids also enjoy baseball, and I can see how it’s similar. It’s not anything difficult,” Sheikh said.
English teacher and Cricket Club sponsor Paul Koch has been impressed by Sheikh’s passion for cricket. “So I’m mostly impressed by him taking the initiative to get it done. We’ve had other people in that same role in the past who have said, ‘Yeah, yeah, that sounds like a good idea,’ but it never really took off,” Koch said “It sounds like he has decided, ‘Hey, we’re gonna do this. And he’s making it happen, which is awesome.”
Sheikh, wanting to expand the Cricket Club, has recently reached out to various schools across Loudoun County. “I’ve also contacted other schools that have cricket clubs like us, and [we] played a test game with Loudoun County High School, and it went pretty well,” Sheikh said. “Since it went well, I recently contacted other schools to see if they’re willing to play as well.”
The test match against Loudoun County consisted of two games at Stone Hill Middle School– one game consisted of 10 overs and one game consisted of 5 overs. The Rock Ridge Cricket Club believes they won the 10-over game by 80 runs and won the 5-over game by a significant margin as well. “We played at Stone Hill, and we won both matches,” Satwik Pardia said. “We played one 10-over game and one by like 80 runs and then played a 5-over game, which we also won by a lot.”
However, even with Sheikh’s recent success, he still faces a variety of challenges. “So we try to contact all of the LCPS high schools and, I think 80 to 90% of them don’t have any sort of cricket club, so [there aren’t many] schools we can play with,” Sheikh said.
The need for space associated with expansion is also an issue. “During the day, when you don’t have additional field use or after, because sometimes fields are hard to find, or a place to play is hard to find, or getting people rides after school is hard to find,” Koch said.
Despite these setbacks, Sair’s future goals include the further growth of the Cricket Club and the eventual development of official scrimmages. “I feel like it would be nice to see the introduction of cricket to high school leagues and the overall growth of cricket in the US,” Sheikh said.
Koch also wants to grow the cricket club, planning to eventually set up a team. “ I think the thing is, we need to come up with a sort of roster, a group of competitors who are going to be on the competitive team, that’s separate from the open club aspect,” Koch said. ”Whereas if you’re going to try to compete, you need people that know how to play and have played before, so I think separating those two is an important step,” Koch said.
Sheikh’s journey with the Cricket Club helps show his underlying passion for the sport itself and his future goals for himself. “You have to work hard for your dreams, and big things don’t come in just one day. So it takes courage, and also takes a lot of confidence to build,” Sheikh said.
After Sheikh joined the Cricket Club, he noticed significant inner growth. “It’s made me more confident in my skills, knowing that I can make something so big and impactful, and it makes me feel more passionate,” Sheikh said.
Students interested in joining the Cricket Club can go to Mr. Koch’s room on cardinal days or visit Sheikh at the Cricket Club’s booth at the club fair next year.
