Cricket Club and pool: Students bond on and off the field

UMD’s Cricket Club. Photo curtesy of Nabeel Ahmad

Walking through Kirby Student Center most Monday, Wednesday or Friday nights, students may recognize a familiar group playing pool. A group of students from UMD’s Cricket Club enjoy spending time together beyond the field at the pool table.

Nabeel Ahmad, Vice President of the Cricket Club. Photo by Madison Hunter

The group enjoys the monthly pool tournament put on by Kirby Programing Board (KPB) and they play to “defeat each other,” Nabeel Ahmad, Vice President of the Cricket Club and winner of last months KPB tournament, said.

Ahmad explained the group plays together because they’re all very good.

“We all, our group of four to five people, we are really good at playing,” he admits honestly.

Besides table pool they also get together for a weekly Cricket Club match. They all enjoy cricket because it is a sport they know from home and it gives them a chance to talk to each other. Many of the international students in the club are from countries that have tensions with each other. Ahmad himself is from Pakistan which is currently at odds with India. He noted that on the field players can talk and discuss the disagreements going on where they are from. Players may read online stories and articles about the disputes the two counties have toward each other and then discuss them at the match.

“We get together, meet with each other and talk on these topics,” Ahmad said. “ It’s really friendly we don’t feel that they are different than us, we have more things in common that unite us then the things that divide us.”

He cited these discussions is one of the reasons it’s so important they get together. Another reason being they are grad students who don’t like to hide away in their dorms.

“We don’t like to hide ourselves in our homes so we come out and play cricket all around and do our research,” he said. He also hopes that other students who don’t know about the cricket club might come out and give it a try.

“Most of the people over here don’t know we have a cricket club here at UMD,” Ahmad said. “A lot of the people are from India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka and they are crazy about cricket. I would love to inform all those students who want to play cricket but don’t know it’s going on at UMD. I encourage students to not hide themselves at home, come out and play games it’s more fun.”

Ahmad is in his last semester of the mechanical engineering graduate program here at UMD. He has been playing cricket, badminton and pool during all his semesters here. He completed his undergrad in Pakistan.

UMD Cricket Club plays Friday nights at 8 P.M. in the Ward Wells field house.