The concrete has been cured and the Prince George Cricket Club is on solid footing in its new home at Vanier Park - just in time for this weekend's six-team tournament.
The joint project with the club and the city gives cricket its first permanent home at 2727 Vanier Dr., in the field east of Westwood Mennonite Church.
Four local teams - Royals United, Kings X1, Yadwindrian and BC Chargers - will converge on the field with Surrey Cricket Club and Dawson Creek in the three-day tournament, which starts today at noon.
"This is a project we've been working on this since last year when we sent a proposal to the city and they accepted our proposal and gave us a letter of support," said Prince George Cricket Club director Kanwal Bains.
Bains said the club sent a letter to neighbourhood residents and met with Mayor Lyn Hall and city council to explain their plan to build a dedicated cricket field at Vanier Field.
"It's a little bit late because of the weather, we thought we would have it done two weeks ago but we just finished construction this week," said Bains.
"It is ready now."
The project was paid for entirely through private donations and contributions from local businesses and the field will be jointly managed by the club and city parks staff.
Similar to baseball, cricket is a bat-and-ball game in which two teams of 11 players play against each other. The object of the game is to score the most runs and get the other team's batsmen out.
In cricket, the ball is bowled (thrown) at the batsman who stands in front of the wickets. The bowler must release the ball with a straight-arm motion and bounce the ball off the pitch before it gets to the batsman. The bowler tries to knock off the bails which sit on stumps to form the wicket behind the batter. If he does that, the batter is out.
A batsman is also out (dismissed) if the ball he hits gets caught or if the opposing team throws the ball and hits the stumps before the batter reaches the end of the pitch. If the batter gets his body in the way of a bowled ball that would hit the wicket, it's an automatic out. The fielding team must retire or dismiss 10 batsmen to end the innings.
Once contact with the ball is made, the batter takes off running and can score a run by reaching the other team's end of the pitch before the ball is thrown to knock down the bails. A ball hit in the air which lands out of the field is worth six runs. A ball that bounces and then goes out of the boundary is worth four runs.
An over consists of six consecutive legal pitches made by the bowler at each batter. Typically, two bowlers alternate overs, bowling in tandem.
All of the bowling and hitting takes place in a rectangular concrete pitch nine feet wide and 65 feet long. "Comparing to baseball, you bounce the ball and throw it towards the batsman, so it has to be a concrete surface for the ball to bounce properly," said Bains.
Games will be about three hours in length. The group games will be 15 overs long, while playoff games will be 20 overs in length. The tournament resumes Saturday at 8 a.m. Semifinals will be played Sunday at 8 and 11 p.m., with the final to begin at 2 p.m. on Sunday
Cricket is one of the most popular sports in countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the Caribbean and is played professionally in those countries but lacks a high profile in Canada. Prince George has only about 100 players involved in the season, which runs from May-September.
Bains and the club are hopeful that more people will see cricket played at Vanier Field and that new players will accept the cub's open invitation to join them on the field for club practices and future tournaments.
He encourages players to get in touch with the club through email at princegeorgecricketclub@gmail.com.
