Cricket in the 'Burgh - part 1: A new season begins

The opinions expressed in this post are solely that of the author who, on occasion, had an out-of-body experience and was able to watch himself play.

In the 2006 season, West Virginia University Cricket Club (WVUCC) joined the Pittsburgh Cricket Association (PCA) after a many years in the Midwest Cricket League (you can go find the links to that league yourself, if interested!)

Led from the front by Sohail Chaudhry, it did not take long for WVUCC to establish itself in the league as one of the better teams. A total of 7 teams played each other three times (for a total of 18 regular season games). In a quirky season WVUCC finished runners-up in the regular season standings without ever defeating the Steelzags or the PittPunters in three chances each (click here for the 2006 season scoreboards).

Unfortunately, the lack of success against the elite teams in the league caught up to WVUCC in the semi-finals when the PittPunters steamrolled past them, eventually going on to win the championship.

Here are a couple of photographs of the team members during a practice session at St. Francis Field in Morgantown, WV (I blogged about it here last year).

The loss to the PittPunters rankled all off-season and when 2007 began a revamped WVUCC approached the new campaign with a firmer resolve...