The Cluster - MercerCluster.
com
December 1, 2016 Volume 99 Issue 8
Students to start first womens college club cricket team in U.S.
Sophomores Nova Alam (right) and Supreet Raina (left) were the Mercer students who
had the idea of starting a womens club cricket team.
Hayes Rule
Social Media Editor
social@mercercluster.com
Nova Alam wanted to play compet-
itive cricket. Growing up in Lilburn,
Georgia, Alam played the sport casually
Hayes Rule / Social Media Editor
do we even talk to? Raina said. At least
with her family in the backyard. When her
cousins came over, instead of grabbing a
pigskin, they would grab a wooden bat,
wickets and balls.
Thanksgiving? Cricket. Christmas?
Cricket. Fourth of July? Cricket.
But she never played competitively.
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mercercluster
So when Alam saw that Mercer had a
mens club cricket team, she asked if she
could join.
I was like, Hey, can girls play? Im
kind of interested, Alam said. And they
said, No, this is a mens league.
So the sophomore took matters into
her own hands. Along with her friend,
sophomore Supreet Raina, Alam looked
into creating a womens cricket team
at Mercer the first womens cricket
team at a university in the United States,
according to Petal Samuels of the GWCA
(Georgia Women Cricket Association).
According to Raina, in order to be-
come an official club, she and Alam had to
find a league to play in and enough inter-
est to field a full team. Check, and check.
But it wasnt easy. Raina said it took
months to simply find someone to play
against.
When we started thinking about this
and wanting to do it, we were kind of like
at a standstill, because we were like, Who
with the mens team, they have someone
to talk to, some entity to contact. It really
started out with just us stepping back
and looking at it and going, This isnt
fair. Wheres the support for a womens
team?
Raina eventually got in contact with
the GWCA, an organization that fields
Student travels
to North Dakota
to document
protests
Read about her experience
on page 12
the Atlanta Pearls womens cricket team.
According to the GWCAs Facebook page,
while it intends [develop] cricketers to
their fullest potential, while providing
a platform to showcase their talents and
skills. It also suggests its using cricket
to transcend racial, economic, social and
political barriers.
Alam said creating the team was a
chance to start something new some-
thing that would, like the GWCA sug-
gested, promote diversity on Mercers
campus.
There arent that many girls teams
here and there, Alam said. This is just
one step forward we can use to promote
that.And while Raina and Alam already
have interest from about 30 girls 11
of whom have already filled out official
forms they want to spread the word
even more. The team plans to debut in fall
2017 in order to have a full semester for
practices.
But since it will be the first womens
cricket team at a university, the team
wont be playing against other colleges.
Mercer will be playing teams through the
GWCAs contacts.
Continued on Page 15
Photo by Cheyanne Reyome