Apple Cup rivalry takes to new pitch

Pranav Mellacheruvu was born in India and moved to San Jose, Calif., before his first birthday, then migrated to the Pacific Northwest to settle in Issaquah. Despite growing up over 8,000 miles away from his birthplace, a hotbed for cricket, it did not take long for the pre-med sophomore to find his passion. Mellacheruvu’s father raised him to love the game, and his grandfather played professionally in his hometown of Hyderabad, nearly qualifying for India’s national team, a perennial world power in international competition. “Ever since I could walk and could pick up a cricket bat, I’ve been playing,” Mellacheruvu said. Mellacheruvu is currently co-president of the UW’s Husky Cricket Club and is working to expose students to cricket culture. The Husky Cricket Club has its first-ever intercollegiate match Sunday in Pullman against the WSU Cricket Club. One of the most popular sports in the world has a small presence in the United States and an even smaller one at the UW, but a group of students is working to build its small organization into something much bigger, starting with the first annual Cricket Apple Cup. It is Mellacheruvu’s passion for this global sport that inspired the sophomore to start the long but rewarding process of revitalizing the previously defunct Husky Cricket Club in his freshman year. He joined up with Farhan Himmati, now a senior, to build the club essentially from the ground up, armed only with a Facebook page. It has been a two-year project getting the core group of regular members in place. Now the two of them get to enjoy the fruits of their labor this weekend. “This WSU game is nice and it gives some spotlight onto our club,” Himmati said. “But I want to expand that further and maybe enter it into one of the local tournaments.” With Himmati and the rest of the Husky Cricket Club members, Mellacheruvu has continued his family’s storied cricket past, and even represented the United States in international play on the under-15 and under-17 national teams. “That was a cool experience,” Mellacheruvu said. “Cricket’s not very popular in the U.S., obviously, but finding players my age who love the sport, it’s just fun to hang out with them and play the sport I love.” Though the sport remains relatively anonymous on a campus dominated by football and basketball fans, cricket boasts a fan base of 2 to 3 billion people worldwide, second only to soccer in both viewership and participation. A vast majority of the supporters reside on the Eastern Hemisphere, specifically in the United Kingdom and countries that were colonized by the British, now referred to as the Commonwealth of Nations. It even has a foothold in the African continent, primarily in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Cricket is ingrained in the culture of Oceania as well as the heavily populated Indian subcontinent, where it is the most popular sport in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and India, the country with the second-highest population in the world. Cricket is so popular in India that Preity Zinta, a Bollywood actress, said in an interview with CNN International, “Two things in India are religion — one is cricket, and one is movies — these are two things.” As the next step in increasing the sport’s popularity on campus, the Husky Cricket Club held tryouts this past Sunday on Denny Field to select a lineup of players to travel to Rogers-Orton Playfield in Pullman for their match at 10:30 a.m. Sunday. The Huskies have a tough task ahead of them, but Mellacheruvu is excited at what this means for the club. “It’s an opportunity for our players to get the feeling that we’re representing this school,” Mellacheruvu said. “It’s an inspirational kind of moment for them. And it’s also a fun kind of bonding experience for the club itself.” The WSU team has a distinct organizational edge as a member of an official league, but the UW team should not be counted out. The Huskies have players who boast strong backgrounds in the sport. In addition to the international experience of Mellacheruvu, Himmati represented the under-19 team of the Northwest Region when he was in high school and junior Sahith Cheera has a long history of playing both formally and recreationally. Cheera played on his high school team and played pick-up street cricket nearly every day growing up in India. He is currently an officer for the Husky Cricket Club and is excited to be part of its growth. “We’re getting a lot of members to start playing more regularly,” Cheera said. “We have a group of 15 to 20 who come every time. Now is the phase where we’re trying to expand and get more people in, especially because it’s spring. In winter you can’t really play much because it’s raining all the time.” The club welcomes players of all skill levels indiscriminately and with open arms, and the experienced players carry the necessary leadership skills and patience to coach newer players and elevate the club to new heights. The Husky Cricket Club has a core group in place to keep the wheels turning, and Mellacheruvu wants to share his love for the sport with the rest of the UW. “Our goal is to revive the club that was here before and espouse the cricket culture on campus,” Mellacheruvu said. “In college a lot of people want to try new things. A lot of people I’m sure have never actually heard of cricket, so we’re giving them the opportunity to try it out.” Reach contributing writer Evan Franklin at development@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @franklination13

Apple Cup rivalry takes to new pitch

Disruptor interrupts Psych 210, professor and students chase man on to Red Square

2025 Seattle and King County primary election endorsements

UW mechanical engineering students are now required to pay $250 quarterly fee to participate in department-affiliated RSOs

College Inn Pub reopens under new ownership