I played cricket for the first time today. After arriving home from San Diego, my brother Alex got a call from a friend to see if he wanted to play cricket. Having only watched, I decided it’d be fun to play. So we drove over to a nearby park, where there’s an astroturf cricket strip set in the middle of a grass field. We joined the dozen or so Indian college-students already playing. I pretty much just did what I was instructed to do and learned some of the details of the sport that I never picked up from just watching on TV. Like any time I’m playing sports, it was a great time. There’s few things I’d rather do than be outside playing sports. Whether its a morning football game with my friends or an afternoon of baseball, I’m happy. The smell of the grass, the freedom to run and dive, the competition- nothing can beat that.

I was thinking it was good that I played cricket now though, since I’ll be traveling around the Commonwealth over the next couple years. I think its good to know the sport, because I’ll be able to join a pickup game in India or Sri Lanka or somewhere. Otherwise, I don’t know what I’d do for exercise outside of walking/hiking; I suck at soccer and baseball’s not that big in Asia (except in Japan and Taiwan). Hopefully, I can learn about and play other sports while I’m abroad, to fill the void from a lack of baseball and football.