Northview’s Cricket Club shares their experiences with new resources to secure a win for this season.

Anshi Vajpayee, Opinions Editor & Juliette Salah, Staff Writer

To many Northview students, cricket is unfamiliar and intriguing. To the fairly new Cricket Club, however, it is an engaging, highly-competitive, and enjoyable sport. Despite struggles to reconcile and navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cricket Club adapted, grew, and persisted to continue playing the sport they love. 

“We're just really lucky to be in a school where we're given the opportunity to organize a club,” Akhil Swarna, a junior on the Cricket Club, said.  

Cricket involves two clubs with 11 players on each side, and this year, the Cricket Club has recruited over 15 players onto their team. Swarna hopes to present the sport to others who are interested and expand the team’s influence in Johns Creek. 

Recently, with the help of the Johns Creek Cricket Association and the Johns Creek City Council, a new scoreboard, a cricket pitch, an astroturf pitch as well as cricket nets were implemented into Shakerag Park, which further legitimized the sport and helped promote the field for public use. 

“A lot of money has been put into this. It's a big project, and we're delighted to have this because it makes our job as cricket players much easier,” Viraj Vaghela, captain of the Cricket Club, said. 

The scoreboard, specifically, will help the Cricket Club ease their way into their matches without having to constantly ask onlookers for their current score. The club feels their new equipment has helped promote a sense of professionalism. 

“We go through protocols that professional athletes go through,” Swarna said. “We get the scoreboard which is a huge resource to our game and helps players really feel like they're in the moment in an actual match.”

Northview’s Cricket Club spends much of their time practicing at Shakerag Park, usually two times a week for around two hours each session to prepare for their fall tournament conducted by the Johns Creek Cricket Association. Earlier in the season, the club qualified for the playoffs and won a recent semi-final match against Lambert High School. Over the summer, Northview’s Cricket Club also played informal tournaments with nearby schools and continued to hone their cricket skills. 

“We work with those clubs, expanding the knowledge of cricket and the sport throughout the community,” Swarna said. 

To accommodate coronavirus protocols, the club begins all of their sessions with temperature checks, mandated hand sanitizer, and implemented social distancing. Despite having fewer opportunities to practice, Northview’s Cricket Club continues to work relentlessly. Luckily, their efforts paid off as after all the hard work they had put in this season, they won the recent Championship. On Sunday morning, Dec. 6, the team played their semi-finals match against Lambert. 

“We batted first and made 137 in 15 overs. Akshay Para hit 46 runs in 24 balls, and [I] hit 32 runs in 16 balls,” Vaghela said. “ We kept Lambert to 90 runs and won with Sohum Rane and [I] taking 3 wickets each.”

After that, the team played Wheeler High School in the finals. Northview managed to keep them to only 62 runs in 15 overs. 

“The highlights of the innings was Sohum Rane’s catch of the season, running back diagonally from mid-off,” Vaghela said. “Atteendra Subramanian and [I] hit 30 off 19 not out and 26 off 14 not out to finished the game under 7 overs.”

That victory made Northview Titans the 2020 Fall JCCA High School League Champions. Despite all the challenges they may have faced, Northview’s Cricket club shows just how much hard work can pay off.

“I just want to thank Mr. McCombe, our sponsor. At the end of the day, none of this could have been possible. None of this could have happened without his support,” Vaghela said.