History of Cricket in Virginia and North Carolina
Ancient History*:
Cricket was first played in the United States in the "Tidewater" area of Virginia (near Norfolk and Hampton I believe) in the early 1700s by wealthy landowners with nothing better to do with their time. This was primitive "4-a-side cricket", as opposed to the primitive 11-a-side cricket most of us play today. The game actually flourished amongst the wealthy English settlers and soldiers who lived in the East and north east of the country.
Cricket became more and more popular in the 19th century and clubs existed in most States, along with numerous cricket publications. In the South, which remained largely rural into the 20th Century, team sports were rare. Only in cities – usually those with transport hubs - did team sports develop. This is not to say that team sports didn’t exist outside of cities, but they were more akin to today’s “pickup” games. A popular sport in the South amongst white and black people was a form of (field) hockey called “bandy” or “shinny.” This was a rough, informal sport and in areas where cricket wasn’t played and in times before baseball and football had developed, was the only team sport. At the time (late 18th, early 19th centuries) many of the bat and ball sports were played with a curved bat that looks a bit like a hockey stick. This includes the ancestor to golf, and cricket. Given that the equipment was basically the same, it’s possible that when young people were not playing bandy they were playing an early form of cricket.
Over the years there is evidence of formal cricket teams being established in Norfolk, Richmond and Roanoke VA, Charleston SC and Savannah GA. Formally established teams came and went. For example in Richmond VA a team was incorporated in 1795 – which is the oldest formal evidence of a cricket team in North America. There were 14 players registered, each of whom had paid $1 to join. The rules stated that if a member was absent from four successive playing days, he would be fined 25 cents. The Carolina ANZACs would be flush with funds if we had a rule like this! No one is sure how long this club lasted. The next evidence of a formal cricket club in Richmond is from 1857 when an announcement appeared in the New York Spirit of the Times stating that a meeting had taken place for “a conversational discussion relative to the merits of this manly sport” and it was determined to establish a club. A few issues later the Spirit pleading for the “secretary or some other of our friends in Richmond, send us the score of their opening game? We wish to place it upon record as the first game ever played in Virginia. It will be worth something a hundred years hence.” If only they had known!
Only a couple of references to early cricket in North Carolina exist. The first was in Asheville in 1897. The wealthy folk who constructed Biltmore Estate imported the tradesmen from Boston. It’s likely that they had employed a number of English craftsmen who formed a cricket team during the construction of the estate. At the end of the 19th century students at the Greensboro Women’s Normal College (later to become UNC-Greensboro) were looking around for team sports to play. This was quite controversial at the time, because it was not considered becoming of a young lady to be seen playing vigorous sweaty sports. However cricket was obviously an acceptable option (probably because most people would not have heard of cricket, so they thought their daughters were studying insects). The girls had to teach themselves how to play many of the sports they played and did this by reading books. Now if only we could encourage the armchair umpires in our league to open a book and learn some of the rules! Basketball was also one of the sports considered too “unladylike” for female students to play. To overcome this problem the Physical Education teacher at the college changed the rules to make the sport more suitable for young ladies to play. Interestingly this variant of basketball died out in the United States, but has survived as “Netball” in many countries in the Commonwealth.
* This information was collected from various sources on the WWW and from Tom Melville's "The Tented Field: A History of Cricket in America, The New York Spirit of the Times, "
Cricket since the 1970's in North Carolina:
There isn’t much information about cricket in North Carolina or Virginia for the first 70 years of the 20th Century - the game was probably not played. From the 1970s and early 1980s we have is oral history from some old-timers! In the 1970s the Charlotte Cricket Club existed for several years, we are not sure who they played against, but the team vanished in the 1980s. There was no cricket in Charlotte until the late 1980’s when some South African’s formed the Charlotte Cricket Club, which continues until the late 1990’s with a well known tournament every September/October that attracted teams, players and celebrities from all over the U.S. and from Britain. Also in Charlotte are several enthusiastic teams who are members of the Mid-Atlantic Cricket conference – including the Mecklenburg CC formed in 1997 (the 2000 league champions) and the Charlotte Lions, which formed in 1999 although their roots go back to the mid 1990s. Near Charlotte is the Gastonia Cricket club another member of the MACC, which plays cricket on the first private cricket field in North Carolina.
At the UNC- Chapel Hill, cricket teams have existed on and off since at least the 1970s. During this time there were also teams in Duke and Winston Salem. The UNC and Duke teams’ fortunes (and existence) varied according to how many cricket-playing students were attending. Currently neither university has a permanent team. There was also a team in Greensboro that considered joining the Richmond league, but they have since disbanded.
The most successful UNC team, was started by Amitabh Singh in the late 1980s. This team eventually left UNC and became the Carolina Cricket Club. In the early 1990’s in the Raleigh Durham area, there were teams at NCSU, Duke University and Nortel (now the Raleigh Cricket Club). There was even a team back then called the "Triangle Cricket Club" but that is not the same TCC that exists now. In fact the TCC that exists now was originally called the NCSU cricket club ... confused? In 1996 Syntel formed a team and late that year the Carolina ANZACs formed (known initially as the "Australian Gentlemen and Friends" but surprisingly we couldn’t find any gentlemen). These teams would travel far to play cricket, including Clemson and Columbia SC and even to Washington DC.
Early in 1997 the Carolina ANZACs, Carolina CC, Triangle CC, Nortel CC, Syntel CC, NCSU and CC Virginia Tech. formed the Mid-Atlantic Cricket Conference. The first President (purely because no one else could be bothered) was Stephen Willott, there were no other officers.
Cricket in 1980/90’s in southern Virginia:
There was no
cricket played in southern Virginia until the mid-1980s when NATO forces
based in Norfolk played some informal social matches. In
1988 the Hampton cricket club formed out of these
informal teams and continues today. At around the same time a group
calling themselves the “Manassas Lawn and Garden Club” formed. Their
charter “has always been a staunch supporter of games of civility and
competition. The club has tried to introduce games which require a
variety of physical and mental skills, yet are not exclusive in the
types of unique talent a player may need to excel in them. It was a
goal to promote rare or forgotten games to the public and allow a place
to play once "upper-class" sports to the common man.” Cricket being
both rare and forgotten in America was one of their early subjects of
experimentation. They played a few matches in Southern Virginia and indeed even held an “Ashes” series
between themselves. Some matches in 1987 were played at the “Drill
Field” at Virginia Tech. Eventually the club moved on to more obscure
sports (croquet being one) and relegated cricket to distant memory.
In the early 1990s the local Indian community in Richmond formed a social team (India Association Cricket Club), which played against Hampton, and a team from Lynchburg. Eventually a team of West Indians also formed in Richmond.
Two hundred years after the first recorded club formed in Richmond, a formal cricket league resumed in the city. In 1995 a four-team league was formed and consisted of the Jagans CC, India Association CC (now the Greater Richmond CC), Hampton CC and the Barbarians CC. In 1996 the Richmond International CC joined, but soon disappeared. In 1997 the Pakistan CC (Now Pardesei CC) joined. This league was called the Mid-Atlantic Cricket League. For a couple of season the IACC tried their luck in the Washington DC league, but the competition was too strong, and distance too far, so they rejoined the local league.
Momentous Merger in 1998:
After months of delicate and complicated negotiations between Stephen Willott of the Carolina ANZACs and Dave Quirk of the Barbarians, the Mid-Atlantic Cricket League and the Mid-Atlantic Cricket Conference merged. The league has grown in numbers and success ever since.
Here are other teams that have joined or departed from the league:
1998: Mecklenburg CC and High Point CC joined.
Jagans couldn’t take the pressure and folded early in the season.
1999: Charlotte Lions CC and Durham CC joined.
2000: One CC from Richmond, Pakistan Association CC and Al’B CC
both in High Point joined. Durham CC folded.
2001: Gastonia CC joined the league. Durham CC rejoined as well. Syntel folded as the economy slowed. Al’B CC decided that three teams in High Point were not sustainable and departed.
2002: The Richmond (Barbarians, Pardesi, One, and Greater Richmond) and Hampton teams left the league. However new teams from Roanoke, Greenville NC and Charlotte (The Fighters CC) joined the league. Durham folded once again (permanently we thought, but read on), and during the season both TFCC got kicked out and Mecklenburg folded.
2003: The Richmond teams rejoined the MACC
and the Durham team rose once again like a Phoenix from the ashes
(renaming itself the “Khalil Memorial Cricket Club” after it’s founder
Khalil Ansari who tragically died in a car accident in early 2003).
Mecklenburg rejoined as well and two new teams – Queen City Cricket
Club from UNC Charlotte and Columbia Cricket Club from Columbia, SC.
This latter club became the first team from South Carolina to join the
Mid-Atlantic Cricket Conference. The MACC now has 21 teams in three
states.