Cricket, a sport that was once unheard of in America, has recently reached a large demographic and is finding new success throughout the East Bay.

In fact, several students at Cal High play cricket in a league or avidly watch televised games, and have shown a strong appreciation for the sport.

Senior Parth Kapoor is one of the few avid players at Cal. His love for the sport blossomed at a young age when he was first introduced to it.

Growing up in India, Kapoor was raised with a strong exposure to the sport, viewing it in a mainstream light.

“In India, cricket is the only sport people really watch with passion, which is why I view it like you would view football or basketball,” said Kapoor.

Kapoor plays for the San Ramon Cricket Club as an “all-rounder,” meaning he plays both batsman and bowler positions.

In equivalence to baseball, a batsman is similar to a batter, and a bowler is like a pitcher.

As an all-rounder, Kapoor possesses excellent hand-eye coordination, strong arms, and is fast on his feet.

Many people tend not to play the sport because of its highly competitive nature. Cricket requires extreme athleticism and coordination, both of which Kapoor possesses.

Senior Sreenidhi Kotipalli actively watches the Indian Premier League (IPL), which is a professional cricket league in India. Her favorite team is the Chennai Super Kings and her favorite player is batsman Suresh Raina.

“I don’t know if popularity is increasing in America as a whole,” Kotipalli said, “but we do live in an area with an unusually high South Asian population, which could be why we see more and more cricket fans.”

Cricket’s popularity is growing in California, especially in San Ramon and the Tri-Valley area, according to a story published in the Contra Costa Times in August.

In fact, Dublin’s two middle schools plan to field cricket clubs this year, making them first in the Bay Area and possibly in the state, to offer this sport.

This influx of culture in the Tri-Valley could be cause for the rapid increase in cricket leagues.

Between 2000 and 2013, San Ramon’s Indian population increased 600 percent – from 1,390 to 9,720 residents, according to the Times article. The small suburban city now has a higher percentage of Asians living in it than San Francisco or San Jose – 39.5 percent.

Freshman Rohan Madhok believes cricket is becoming more popular in certain areas of San Ramon, such as the Dougherty Valley.

Madhok mentioned the Monarch Park, a park near Dougherty Valley High School open for kids to play, learn from teachers or compete in a cricket league.

He described the park as a “positive environment for young cricket players to develop their skills.”

Another student who believes the sport’s future popularity will be massive is junior Eeshan Sharma.

“It is a different yet enjoyable sport, and I think that the immigration of billions of Indian kids to high schools has made more [students] want to try it,” Sharma said.

Not everyone has a positive idea about the sports’ fame, though. Junior Samuel Collier plays cricket for fun and watches many games.

“I’ve never heard anyone talk about it here, and I don’t think there’s much of a culture of cricket in the United States,” said Collier.

Undoubtedly, there are many mixed opinions regarding the foreign sport and whether it will catch on in American high schools.

It seems that schools with a high South Asian population, such as Cal and Dougherty, have accepted the sport and students are more open to the idea of playing it with friends or watching major games.

Cricket hasn’t reached the level of popularity in high schools as football or basketball, but who knows, maybe in a couple years, Cal High will have a cricket team of its own.