Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Julius Clayton | Staff Sgt. Leonardo Brightstar, preventative medicine Noncommissioned officer...... read more read more
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CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait – When most Soldiers think of sports played with a bat and a ball, the first ones that come to mind are baseball or softball. However, on Camp Arifjan June 7-10 a new sporting vernacular was offered up: cricket, not the annoying bug that keeps some of us awake at night with their incessant noise.
But the internationally acclaimed sport of “cricket” as the Morale, Welfare and Recreation hosted its 2nd annual Cricket Tournament.
Cricket, the world’s second most popular sport, is a bat and ball game, played between two teams of 11 players each. One team bats, attempting to score runs, while the other bowls (like a pitcher in baseball or softball) and fields the ball, attempting to restrict the scoring and dismiss (get out) the batsmen. The objective of the game is for a team to score more runs than its opponent.
It is hugely popular in many countries around the world including England, India, South Africa and Australia, but is slowly gaining popularity in the United States.
At this year’s tournament, there was one all-Soldier team, appropriately named “Team America,” who did themselves proud by winning their first match by overcoming a huge deficit and scoring the winning run on the last ball of the match.
“We were all so excited and wanted to celebrate with each other, because except for one of our players, none of us had ever played cricket before today,” said Staff Sgt. Leonardo Brightstar, 255th Medical Detachment preventative medicine noncommissioned officer in charge.
“Team America” captain Sgt. Steven Homol from the 3rd Medical Command (Deployment Support) was extremely proud of his team and the effort and commitment they showed in learning a sport very foreign to most all of them.
“We hosted our first tournament last year because a lot Soldiers were asking us to put on a tournament, so we did and seven teams registered, with only one American Soldier total on any of the teams,” Said Wellington D’Souza, fitness center lead (sports), Camp Arifjan MWR. “So this year, we started organizing earlier and getting the word out sooner, and we had four teams with Soldiers on the roster, including the one all-Soldier team, so we were very happy with that outcome.”
The tournament consisted of over 175 players on 15 teams with many different nationalities and job titles. Included among those was a team with just one American player, Staff Sgt. Anthony Pickering of the 218th Military Police Company. Pickering was part of the “TMP Strikers” a team made up of workers from the Camp Arifjan detainment facility where he works.
“Some of the guys I work with asked me if I wanted to play, and I thought sure why not give it a try,” said Pickering.
“It’s not every day you get a chance to try a new sport especially with people who have grown up playing that sport,” Pickering added.
After 24 matches played over four grueling days and nights in the heat of Kuwait, the tournament drew to a close on Tuesday evening with two semifinal matches and the grand final match to crown the 2014 Camp Arifjan Cricket champions, and in the words of the tournament announcer, “Well played.”
| Date Taken: | 06.11.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 06.11.2014 14:45 |
| Story ID: | 132804 |
| Location: | CAMP ARIFJAN, KW |
| Web Views: | 159 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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