PSCC or Penn State Cricket Club has had an interesting history. Founded in 1966 as a student club, PSCC has probably gone through many a life cycles. Students passionate about the greatest game on earth find time from their busy schedules of classes, assignments, project reports, presentations to come together as a group and play the game. With cricket not a mainstream sport in the US of A, the population from which members could be recruited is very small comprising mainly of international students. These have the added workload of supporting their livelihood while studying by being on assistantships. Hence the contribution of the players is all the more worthwhile. Hence understandably the club has seen a few down years as well when the club was dormant with no members. Probably the longest of these stints was during the 90s.
A fresh startThe club in its present form was revived in 2002 by the committee of Aamod Sathe (Pres.), Amit Kapoor (Veeps), Nachiket Bhave (Treas) and James O'Brien (Secy). With nothing left from the erstwhile club but a worn out piece of astroturf at Flower Gardens and a box of the remnants of a fire that destroyed most of the previous equipment, the challenges were enormous. But financial support from UPAC and a group of people thirsty for some cricket saw the club assimilate protective equipment, balls, bats and most importantly a matting for the wicket. Next came the motivation for this group of people to come out and play and try to improve - joining the Cricket League of New Jersey. That meant travelling every weekend to New Jersey (250 miles, 4 hrs) and then playing for 6 hours before the long return journey. But for the people who had been thriving to play cricket it was fun. And so the 2003 season began.
The dumps - CLNJ (2003 season)Practice started as soon as the dreary Happy valley weather permitted although most of the practice sessions were held with temperatures still in the 60s. It was perfect early summer English weather some might say but feeling the leather on your palms after a long time and that too from the bat of Samsi while trying to catch the high ones in that cold would smart like crazy. Added to it was the woe of not getting the matting until almost the first game of the season. That meant trying to get some batting practice on a low bounce soggy worn astroturf and the bats gave in with the club breaking 3 of the precious practice bats. A couple of unbranded bats were flown in and some serious knocking in saw the club go into the first game with 3 bats for the entire team. We lost the game with poor batting but a spirited bowling performance by Viren which showed that our team had talent. The next game our bowling performance was better but out batting was even more pathetic.
Just when we thought hope might be lost, we won our first game on a rain drenched ground in ankle deep water at point area we enjoyed our success. Instead of growing from this success, we hit our club's worst point when we had to forfeit a couple of games as we could not gather enough players to play the matches. Few dissensions with club management and students not being available, we could have just folded. But new leadership from Subash, Viren and Gautam who took over the club brought in a new chapter of the club. Added to it was the new concept of travelling as a team in a maxivan and immediately the new group started off with a win. The few losses that followed could not take away from the new found enthusiasm of being cooped up in a van and share great moments and the club ended its first season with a record of 3-9-4. A start from which to build on.
The new Hope - WMCB (2004 season)
With Subash Jayaraman (Pres.), James O'Brien (Veeps), Gautam Wagle (Treas) and Viren Patel (Secy) still continuing the leadership role and new members like Choksi, Nishant, Ajay bringing in new enthu, PSCC joined the Washington Metro Cricket Board to overcome the ground hassles it faces in Jersey. A little more experience under its belt and total effort in fielding the club was ready to take on the new league. Its first travel to its home base in D.C. of Oxon Hill, the club was faced with the prospect of playing in a dangerous neighborhood where the previous night some of the Trindies players were mugged. The first game of the season and again the batting failed miserably against Damascus and ghosts of old past were revisited. But they were soon laid to rest with a great overall performance with bat and ball against Alexandria saw us secure our first win of the new season in our second game, already a better start than previous year. A tonking from Windies in the next game brought us down to earth but we did fight back unlike previous year when we would have gotten trampled on.
This fight brought in belief and PSCC went on a streak of 4 consecutive wins. In addition a couple of the PSCC players (Shiv Iyer and Kingsley Henry-Chow) were selected to play in the WMCB team against Garden State League. The van travels continued and the teams were having fun. New traditions were added like the team huddle at fall of wickets, the "Lets Go Lions!" roar from Gautam, huddle dance on pitch after a win and post game dinners at Indian restaurants around D.C. Though PSCC did not make it to the postseason, it ended its first WMCB season with a turnaround of 6-4-2 season and the respect of the other teams in the league who started appreciating the team for more than its effort as a team travelling 200 odd miles to play.
So Near Yet So Far - WMCB (2005 season)
With a winning season under its belt, PSCC was looking forward to returning to the WMCB season of 2005 with new vigor. The offseason was one of the most dreadful ones though. The new committee of Ramesh Ravella (Pres), Rohan Samsi (Veeps), Rajaraman Ramanarayanan (Treas with too many A's in his names) and Nishant Raizada (Secy) were faced with the new challenge of being now a member of club sports. The assured money from UPAC of the previous years was gone and the club recieved a paltry sum of $500 against the needed $4000 for participation and travel to D.C. The 2005 season was in jeopardy. Being new to club sports, PSCC also lost out in its efforts to raise much needed funds. With members still committed to playing, they generously donated money to the club either as monthly fees or lumpsum. Each contribution was noteworthy. A couple of football concession stands and a successful bid at hosting the spring 8-a-side tennis ball tourney what is now a landmark saw the club scrap together enough money to join the league and get some needed equipment. Rajaraman kept a close watch on funds. However the much needed funds to travel as a team in a van which had become an integral part of the teams success were no longer available. This meant that team would be travelling in 2-3 cars everytime. Again members with cars were gracious enough to accomodate and members started shelling out $10 a game to cover gas expenses and buy refreshments.
The costly affair did not deter the team and they took up where they had left off. The season started with PSCC hosting its first game in WMCB league at home in Penn State. No travel before the game and home turf (mat whatever?), PSCC could not have asked for a better omen but weather did not cooperate and it rained. However since UMBC had travelled so far and having known the pains of travelling and not getting a game in, PSCC hosted a 25 overs a side game but lost. That and yet again losing to Damascus (for the third time in a row...something that hurts) were the only hiccups PSCC faced in the Main league tournament to end up with a 6-2 record and runner-up to Damascus for the South Group.
So near winning the group and the team was fired up for the Albert Griffith Tournament and lost only to Chantilly on a hot day. They would have made it to the semifinals had the WMCB committee not ruled in favor of UCC being awarded a tie in the match when PSCC chasing a small total had to reckon with UCC players leaving to accompany one of their players who complained of chest pains. The absence of a league umpire for the game meant that noone could explain the situation and the PSCC members were left screaming to no avail as they saw themselves robbed of a playoff chance inspite of a stellar season at 10-3 (10-2-1 as WMCB puts it... but we refuse to acknowledge).
Revenge is sweet and the Fruit is ours - WMCB (2006 season - Main League)
As if the injustice of WMCB was not enough, PSCC was faced with a new regulation from Club sports that it belonged to a risk level 2 and hence would need a coach and 2 safety officers with first aid training to be recognized as a club. PSCC was deactivated while it pondered this scenario and finally the recently returned James O'Brien agreed to be coach (whatever?) and along with Subash and Samsi undertook the medical training to become safety officers. The new committee of Karthikeyan Shanmugasundaram (Pres and club member with longest name), Rohan Shirwaiker (Veeps), Venkatesh Rajagopalan (Treas) and Vivek Natarajan (Secy) took stock of situation and the offseason activites to raise funds began. The aim was not to require donations. A successful football stand and a spectacular fundraising effort at the spring tourney with 15 teams and more than 100 t-shirts sold along with sponsorship money for the event, the club started the season with a lot more money than the previous year.
This meant that while members still shelled out $10 a game, it could travel again as a team in the van. The first game of the season was against Chantilly (the WMCB champions from last year) and PSCC had never won its first game of the season. With rain threatening the weekend, PSCC had an average effort with the bat but backed up the effort with the ball. The game was interestingly poised with Chantilly down 5 wickets but a good runrate when it started raining while the 20th over was being bowled. Four more balls and Chantilly would have claimed victory with the minimum overs being bowled but the skies did not relent and the game was abandoned due to rain. This meant that PSCC had gotten off to its best start with a draw and a point shared against the best team in its group. Following it was the much anticipated match against UCC whose antics had prevented PSCC from being in the playoffs the previous year. To complete the circle, the player responsible was now leading the team. The story was there and the ending was iced in with PSCC winning the game and exacting revenge.
And then we lost to Alexandria. A total shoddy batting effort saw us in a lost cause but we fought till the end and made a match out of a total mess but we had our loss. Not able to afford any more losses for any hope to win the group, PSCC rumbled on like a wounded lion and won big against the other contenders Washington and Crescent while Jamaica having a poor season just forfeited their game. Things were still tight in the group but rain on the Sunday of the penultimate weekend meant Washington and Chantilly had to share a point and PSCC was going into the final weekend with its destiny in its own hand. A win and they would be the group champions. And win they did on a soft and uneven pitch against Nova.
From the dumps of forfeiting games during the CLNJ season, the agonies of endless defeats, the unsavory flavor of being runner up in the group, the fury of being robbed of a chance to be in the playoffs, PSCC were finally champions. Of their own group only perhaps but they did it. The effort of all the members whether they played for the team, travelled every weekend, helped raise funds, served as committee members, came as a 12th man, drove a van or personal car, carried equipment all the way from India or just gave their membership dues and never showed up was finally awarded. The journey continues as yet another tournament starts soon and while we can cherish this moment, we need to again put our heads down and embark to make this the most memorable season ever and grow to be a leading university sports club.
