Fall 2020 Newsletter

The Fall Cricket Season has now wrapped up, and despite the cancellation of scheduled matches and participation in the Philadelphia Cricket Festival because of COVID 19, the 2020/21 team was able to practice daily on Cope Field. Precautions included breaking the afternoon practice into smaller group to reduce the number of people on the field, and rotating the practice times. Coach Kamran Khan reports that the team was able to work on sharpening batting, bowling and fielding in preparation for what is hopefully the opportunity to have a Spring Season.

Of course, the experience of having played in England in the Spring of 2019, should help season the team and they are of course raring to go once conditions permit.

Kamran describes the batting as solid, with openers Ethan Flicker, and Jack Morgan (Co-Captain), both returning from last year. The team then has depth with steady batting from Kaito Nakatani '21 (Co-Captain) Malcolm Thompson '21 (Co-Captain) and Gulesh Shulka '21, all of whom participated in the Tour of London in May 2019.

Bowling will be strong again, with Openers Gulesh Shukla '20 and Malcolm Thompson '20, complemented by off-spinner Ethan Flicker '21 and Kaito Nakatani '21 who bowls consistent length.

The fielding promises to be a strength as usual, with Rebecca Stern ('24), emerging as the first woman to be wicketkeeper for the Haverford XI.

There are 4 freshmen/women on the team, so that there is a strong base for the future development of the team.

It's always amazing to see the progression of the players who never played the sport before coming to Haverford, and the skills they have developed during their time at Haverford. No doubt that the teams' practice in the Fall, and now Winter training in the field house, and then Spring competition will again benefit from Kamran's experience teaching the mostly American players the skills of the game. Of course, team members' enthusiasm to learn to play cricket are a huge part to the success of Haverford Cricket. As the Alumni Cricket Club, we will be the future beneficiary of their experience playing cricket at Haverford!

Speaking of the future, we should mention that we had the opportunity to meet new President Wendy Raymond, at the last Alumni Match in September 2019. She joined us and met the Alumni Team during the match, and of course continues the Haverford tradition of having the occasional six landing on her porch! We also are following the continued development of cricket in the USA, with the Times of India and Willow committing US$ 1 Billion to the expansion of American cricket in the next decade. There is also the potential for Haverford College to participate in the expansion of the Collegiate Cricket league, as do our rivals U. of Pennsylvania and Temple.

So, despite the difficult times, cricket is still very much a part of the scene at Haverford College!

Paul Trapido '78

President, Haverford Alumni Cricket Club