Niagara Police, Brock students engage in a friendly match of Cricket
Published July 15, 2022 at 2:50 pm
If someone kept score at the cricket match between Brock University students and the Niagara Police, well, no one’s saying a word.
The two sides got together for, to use the sport’s parlance, a “friendly” (match) at Cook Mills Park in Welland on July 13.
As for a winner, let’s just say both sides took a W from this friendly.
“Cricket is an emotion to us, so to have support from the police to meet us out here and play the game we love means everything,” said Muhammad Awais Khalid, a Brock Labour Studies student.
The police came away feeling the same way.
“Most of us have never played cricket before, but we’re willing to give it a try because a big part of what we do as police officers is to connect with our community,” said Niagara Chief of Police Bryan MacCulloch.
“Events like this are incredibly important for us to meet and interact with the community, so when we touched base with this group of Brock students, we couldn’t pass it up.”
The event also served as a fundraiser for students, who are in the process of having a cricket club instated at Brock.
Harshit Baveja, who also serves as the secretary of the Brock Indian Students Association, said it’s remarkable to witness the momentum the sport of cricket is beginning to build at the University.
“We’re on our way in the process of making this an official club at Brock, so we can have more matches with the police and other community members in the future,” said Baveja, a Brock Sport Management student from Delhi, India. “It’s rewarding to see how far our group has come and where we’re going.”
One of the goals of the Brock Cricket Community is to field a competitive team that would compete against other university and college clubs around the province, and ultimately take part in the Canadian College Cricket National Championship in the fall.
“The India and Pakistan match (a friendly held in May) brought a lot of momentum for our group, and we fully realized the cricket talent we have here at Brock,” said Lakshay Gera, a Brock Business Administration student.
“This is a really special time for us because it’s the start of cricket at the University.”
Niagara Regional Police (NRP) Constable Graeme Gaunt takes a crack at cricket during a friendly match between the NRP and Brock students in Welland on July 13.