FRESNO, Calif. – When Jajpal Singh Sidhu moved to Fresno last fall, he hardly knew anyone. Originally from Punjab, India, the 23-year-old tried to find community in a way that anyone else might: he searched for a club that played his favorite sport.
There was just one problem. His favorite sport is relatively obscure in his new country.
“When I was new here, [I was] trying to find people who play cricket,” he said.
Cricket, like baseball, is played with a ball and a bat – but the similarities end there. The game with worldwide appeal, which was created in England centuries before baseball became one of America’s favorite sports, involving wickets instead of bases and a long, rectangular pitch instead of a diamond.
In India, Sidhu played in a national cricket league, and he came to the U.S. in the hopes of continuing the sport at a competitive level.
After several months of searching, he came across the Fresno Cricket Club’s Facebook page. The rest is history.
“I texted them, and they said they play in the evening… They asked me, ‘you can come tomorrow and join us,’” he said.
The Fresno Cricket Club is a professional group that has been in operation since 2007.
But until recently, the club didn’t have a dedicated space to play or practice, and its hundred-odd members had to travel to the south or north of the state for tournaments.
But that is now changing.
The City of Fresno earlier this summer installed cricket pitches at two city parks: Jaswant Singh Khalra Neighborhood Park in West Fresno, and the Fresno Regional Sports Complex downtown.
Baldev Birk, president of the Fresno Cricket Club, is delighted.
“I think the explosion of cricket that's about to happen here in the Central Valley is going to be amazing, and it's going to be something amazing to watch,” Birk said.
How cricket pitches came to life
Birk co-founded the Fresno Cricket Club two decades ago after his friends invited him to play cricket in 2001, he formalized the club to hold tournaments in the Bay Area since there were no local leagues. He calls cricket a “gentleman’s sport.”
“That's the word that comes across, because there's no contact. Literally, you're having this aggressive match, but without ever physically being in contact with anybody,” he said.
One could say cricket is underappreciated in the U.S. Here, it’s not among even the top 20 sports that Americans claim are their favorite, according to a 2024 Gallup poll.
But elsewhere, tens of thousands of spectators will line up for games that sometimes last days – especially in India, Pakistan and Australia, where cricket is deeply rooted in national sports culture.
The sport is “mostly played in countries where the British ruled, but…if you look at the numbers, it's the second most popular sport in the world, after soccer,” said Birk, who is of Indian descent.
His advocacy was one of the reasons these pitches were built in Fresno. Birk and other members of his club appeared at city council meetings and on parks and recreation (PARCS) board meetings, asking about pitches since 2021.
Aaron Aguirre, city of Fresno PARCS director, oversaw the construction of these new pitches.
The first thing he noticed was the different approach people had toward the sport. Having grown up with a love for baseball, he had learned so much about the game that he now shared that knowledge with his children. While walking through local parks, he began to notice something unusual.
Aguirre noticed patterns in the grass at parks.
“Hey, why is grass being worn out in this direction? Baseball's played this direction,” Aguirre said.
That’s when he was first introduced to the sport.
Cricket, a team game played between two sides of eleven players, takes place on an oval field centered around a rectangular area known as the pitch, where most of the action happens.
“They have this long stretch, which is the actual cricket pitch itself. About 66 feet long by 10 feet wide,” Aguirre explained. On one end, you have three wickets and the batter, and on the other, the bowler.
In cricket, one team bowls (or throws) the ball while the other bats. The batting team aims to score runs, while the fielding team works to get the batters out. Runs are earned when the batters successfully run between the two ends of the pitch after hitting the ball. The team with the most runs at the end wins.
Depending on the format and level of play, cricket matches can last just a few hours or stretch across several days.
Aguirre said he began to hear requests for cricket pitches after he was promoted to director four years ago.
“As the community in Fresno has diversified, obviously our needs and our parks have changed, and this was something that was brought up by the community, and it's a sport that's played throughout the age group,” Aguirre said.
The project cost $293,000 and it was funded from Measure P, a city sales tax fund.
With $126,000 allocated for Jaswant Park and $166,000 for the Regional Sports Complex, the remaining funds were used for agreements and construction. The Jaswant Park pitch was designed to give the cricket community a public place to play and spend time with their families, while the Regional Sports Complex was built mainly to host professional practices and tournaments.
Another pitch is under construction near the intersection of Peach Avenue and Geary Street in Southeast Fresno. It will be called the Southeast Regional Sports Complex.
The future of cricket in the Central Valley.
Aguirre said having sports like cricket available opens doors to inclusion.
“We are welcoming to all cultures here in the city of Fresno. We're a diverse community. We have different needs; not all needs are going to be baseball, not all needs are going to be basketball. We want to make sure we're giving spaces to our community, that they can go and enjoy the park just like everybody else,” Aguirre said.
Cricket players are excited about the growth of the sport in Fresno.
Birk pointed to the increasing number of local leagues, youth programs, and community tournaments as signs that the sport is gaining real traction.
For instance, a 6-week camp offered by the Fresno Cricket Club and the city’s parks department began earlier this month for children aged 6 to 12.
And people within the club have already taken the initiative for these camps.
Iqbal Bhullar has been playing cricket ever since he was a child. Now, as a father, he's enrolled his son in lessons to learn how to play the sport.
“Now we can practice with each other. He's little, just eight years old, but he loves the sport. It came natural to him,” Bhullar said.
This story was produced by Israel Cardona Hernandez as part of an internship program through Fresno State’s Media, Communications and Journalism department. KVPR reporter Rachel Livinal contributed.
