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Andrew Koilpillai started playing cricket with his dad in the yard of their home in his native India.

Five decades later, he’s still at it.

Koilpillai, who lives in Northville, is part of a burgeoning number of players taking up the game in Michigan, helping the Michigan Cricket Association grow from just four teams at its inception to more than 90 teams now.

Why all the love for a sport comparatively few Americans know much about?

“That’s like asking (Americans) why they like baseball,” he said, smiling. “It’s in the blood. I like being part of the team. It’s a relaxing day, you don’t have much of anything else going on.”

It’s a passion developing more quickly in the U.S. than ever, according to Koilpillai, who points out that continuing immigration to the United States is helping drive his favorite sport’s popularity.

Cricket, played with a bat and ball by competing teams of 11 players each, is the national summer sport in England and is popular in English colonies.

Koilpillai points out it’s a cultural sport, popular in places such as Australia, India (his native country), Pakistan, the West

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“You can build relationships with people from everywhere,” said Rahman, chairman of the Michigan Cricket Association, the sport’s largest representative in the state. “(Immigrants) are here playing, so when I play I can meet people from other countries. Cricket is a cultural thing.”

Cricket is played with a flat bat (Koilpillai likened it to a large ping-pong paddle) and ball. It’s a high scoring game (one game Koilpillai described ended up in a 191-133 final score) that takes anywhere from three to six hours or more to play.

The field is oval with a rectangular area in the middle, known as the pitch, that is 22 yards by 10 feet wide. Koilpillai said the oval is some 70 yards across.

“It takes skill, it’s fun, you have to be in shape,” he said. “It’s like baseball, there’s a lot of hand-eye coordination that goes into it.”

Indies and the British Isles.

Tayefur Rahman, who has been associated with the sport for more than 30 years as a player, coach and administrator, said the migration of people from countries where the sport is popular allows players to form bonds and friendships with other players.

Making A Pitch

Rahman said the Michigan Cricket Association started in the early 2000s with just four teams. But it’s popularity has grown to the point where the association now has some 92 teams featuring some 1,600 players, including teams in four youth leagues.

The problem hasn’t been finding players; it’s been finding places for them to play. It’s not as hard as it used to be. Mich-CA had only four or five fields when it started in 2001.

Now, Mich-CA has nine fields – including fields in Grand Rapids and Toledo, Ohio –on which it plays its Saturday and Sunday games.

“This is the hard part … getting a cricket field,” Rahman said. “We find some land and put a pitch on it so people can play.”

Mich-CA plays on fields at Heritage Park in Canton, at Bloomer Park in Rochester Hills, and on fields in Pontiac, Hamtramck and Detroit (on Belle Isle).

But thus far, Canton is the only municipality that has dedicated fields for the sport. Rahman said the association recently pitched the Northville community, and there is help on the way here.

Northville Township officials approved the creation of a cricket field in Millenium Park on 6 Mile at their July 20 meeting.

Township supervisor Mark Abbo said the field will be installed by this winter and will overlay a soccer field, so the biggest challenge will be managing time between the two sports.

“Anything to get our people active, and this is one more opportunity that we’ll be able to offer our residents,” Abbo said, noting they are also looking to provide pickle ball courts in the near future.

Debra Bilbrey-Honsowetz, who served a year as interim parks and recreation director for Northville before the hiring of Derek Smith last month, noted the recent formation of a Northville cricket club and a changing demographic that makes a new cricket pitch a viable idea.

“It’s a growing sport and there aren’t many fields,” Bilbrey-Honsowetz said. “The community demographics are changing and supporting that kind of activity … seems like a good fit for the community.”

Koilpillai pointed out that nearly all communities, for instance, have baseball fields available. He’s hoping Mich-CA can find the same acceptance for cricket fields.

“We want to work with municipalities to give us some fields,” he said. “There are baseball fields all over. We just need some dedicated grounds.

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be in the city,” he added. “It can be anywhere (in the metro area). It could be a partnership; we would rent it, we’d want them to maintain it, cut the grass, or if they want us to maintain it, we could lease it from them.”

Players Committed

Maybe that goal will be reachable if the sport’s popularity continues to grow in the U.S. It’s already popular overseas; Rahman likened it to the popularity of soccer’s World

Cup.

That popularity may be creeping into the U.S., which will co-host the 2024 Cricket World Cup (along with the West Indies).

“People didn’t understand (cricket) in the past,” Rahman said. “Now people know and understand the excitement in the game, and they like it.”

Cricket players prove the primary point of the baseball movie, “Field of Dreams” nearly every weekend: If you build it, they will come. Players from metro Detroit, for instance, often make the two-hour drive to Grand Rapids to play a 3- or 6-hour game.

It makes for a pretty long day.

“It’s a full day,” Koilpillai said, laughing. “Everyone’s enthusiastic, and they’re committed.”

Players like Rahman have been committed for a long time. Associated with cricket since childhood in his native Bangladesh, he’s been playing more than 30 years.

He moved to the United States in 2010 and, three years later, began organizing cricket leagues. He became secretary of Mich-CA in 2020 and is now the group’s chairman.

“It’s kind of my life,” Rahman said. “I like the teamwork, it has excitement everywhere. It’s teamwork, patience ... the way you play, everything is there in cricket.”

For more information about the Michigan Cricket Association, visit www. cricclubs.com/MichCA. You can also find them on Facebook and Twitter.

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Editor’s note: The Northville-based New Hope Center for Grief Support hosted its 8th annual Kid’s Camp July 20-21 at Maybury Farm for children (ages 4-14) who have lost a loved one. More than 100 kids attended this. We sent out our photographer Bryan Mitchell to document some of the activities. New Hope Executive Director Jennifer Frush wrote this summary of the annual event.