 "Photo: Courtesy of Manoj Charat")
The Blue Hen Cricket Club, like many other club sports at the university, meets for weekly practices, is student-organized and competes in tournaments on the weekends. There is one thing that sets them apart. Delaware does not recognize them as an official club.
Jaysheel Bhavsar, a founding member of the team, said he and his teammates have approached the university several times in an attempt to get official cub status with the school. The university continued to turn them down because the majority of the players are graduate students.
"We play as a structured organization," Bhavsar said. "We're just not recognized as an official club. We were told we need 15 undergraduate students on the team."
Without official club sport status, the small team struggles financially. The burden of operating the team leads to an annual operating cost of approximately $5,000.
"Twenty of us pull all this out of our pocket year-round," Bhavsar said.
He said the team's biggest cost is maintaining their playing field. Two years ago, the club arranged a deal with Lums Pond, a state park on Route 896, to use one of their fields, or pitches, for practice. The club is responsible for the field's upkeep and maintenance.
Neil Dutta, who is originally from India, said one of the problems they have with recruiting team members is that few people here know about the sport itself.
"It hasn't caught on in the U.S. yet," Dutta said. "But we want to leave a footprint at UD."
Cricket, which is most similar to baseball, is played on a grass field with a strip of flat ground in the center. Two players - the bowler, or pitcher, and the batsman - stand in the center of the field in front of two wooden wickets. The bowler throws to the batsman and attempts to strike the opposing wooden wicket with the ball. The batsman's objective is to hit the ball to the fielders and score as many runs as possible - completing the circuit between his wicket and the bowler's wickets as many times as they can.
Manoj Charati said instead of baseball's traditional nine-inning format, cricket matches can take several days to complete. The club plays an abbreviated version of the game at tournaments - in the 20 format, each team is limited to 20 overs, which are similar to baseball's innings.
Despite lacking an official title at the university, the team is recognized in the Philadelphia Cricket League, a group of nine teams that competes during the season, which typically runs from March to October. This year, the team finished the season with a 3-2 record.
The team has found success at several tournaments since it began playing officially in 2004. They won tournaments in 2004 and 2005 against local teams.
The club meets at 5:30 p.m. on Thursdays for practice during the season. They play at their field at Lums Pond until dark. Their practices are open and they want as many people to come out for the team as possible in March, Dutta said.
"We want people to come by and watch us play," he said. "It's a lot of fun. People will like it."
The club has a diverse roster, with players from India, Sri Lanka and England, among others. Some of the members have been playing cricket since childhood.
"I don't even remember the first time I picked up a bat," Charati said.
Bhavsar, who began playing competitively when the club first formed, still hopes that one day, the club will gain official status with the university.
"UD has rugby and frisbee," he said. "It's one of the most popular games in the world. Why wouldn't we have a cricket team?"
Bhavsar, Dutta and Charati, who are all finishing up their graduate degrees, are eager to build up the club in their last months at the university.
"Our founding members are graduating," Bhavsar said. "Our goal is to pass the game on to others."
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